SpinLord's Bag of Ideas
by SpinLord
Summary: This is just an idea bag. Move along, people. ... Or, rather, please do come and visit! Inside is a bundle of unthinkable crossover ideas that I don't intend to make, but am plagued by their incessant pop-ups. Try and take a look, maybe you'll find one interesting enough to adopt. Hey, hey, that made it sound like a foster home...
1. Story 1: A Certain Right Hand

**The thing about a human's mind is it can be a very generous organ one time and an unbearable scumbag the other. In this case, my mind in particular has been popping up plot bunnies every darn minute of my daily life. Would you give me a rest already, Mind?! You're hindering my other fics!**

**There's no way I can focus my stories without getting these plot bunnies out of my head. Thus, I decided to quarantine those rabbits in a random idea bag.**

**This fic is a crossover idea bag, randomly taken out from the rabbit's cage in my mind. I have no intention to actually make the fic, so this is just me venting my muse. However, anyone is free to continue it should they be interested in writing it.**

**Feel free to scroll around. In the meantime, I'll figure out where Voldemort's nose has gone off to.**

* * *

_Created as the author's stress relief  
Also, as other authors' humble inspiration  
SpinLord presents_

**SpinLord's Bag of Ideas**

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First Story: A Certain Right Hand of the Force

In this universe, there exists both light and darkness.

A balance of the two created a complete circle. Just as the Yin-Yang philosophy from China in planet Earth stated, that balance is what defines life itself.

Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi. He had once been a knight that protects peace, one that sided with the light side. He was 'good', such as his master and all other Jedi were led to believe. However, even he had to abide by the proper balance that the universe is made of.

In the end, it turned out that the darkness in him was stronger than his light.

It devoured him—devoured him whole like a living monster. In the end, the man known as Anakin Skywalker 'died'.

He was reborn as one that stood by the dark side, a Sith known as Darth Vader.

Slaughtered many Padawans he had, young and old, male and female. To further his quest of destruction, he journeyed to the volcanic planet Mustafar and finished off the leaders of the Trade Federation. He would kill, kill, and kill more, bathing his hands in blood and scrap metal.

He had no regrets.

Yet, as one woman came to him to stop him, thus provoking his aggression, he felt his soul die out.

That woman who came to stop him was Padmé Amidala, the love of his life. She was the ultimate reason he was doing this act of treachery, this crime. He did this all to protect her. Yet, why is it that when she came to stop him, he was angered so?

Has the dark side consumed even his love for her?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

His soul—no, his very existence refused to believe it.

He stared Padmé's figure lying down limply on the landing pad they were on with dead eyes. There was no coming back for him now. Even though Padmé was the reason why he did this crime, he had thoroughly destroyed that reason with his own hands.

There was no where he could go except the dark side now.

At that time, though, he looked up with surprised eyes and saw a battered starfighter coming down to the landing pad. It was descending much too fast for a normal landing, but it was definitely heading his way. Not a moment later, that starfighter made a harsh landing, skidding along the landing pad's floor. The landing gear wasn't even pulled out yet, so it scraped the underside badly. It stopped near the Nubian cruiser that Padmé had boarded, almost hitting into the larger spacecraft but not quite touching it.

"..." Anakin stared silently at the downed starfighter, wondering who in the name of the Force was stupid enough to fly a spacecraft like that. He first suspected his Jedi master, but not even he was that unskilled in flying.

The Sith Lord received his answer as the cockpit's hatch opened and let out a black smoke.

"*Cough*, *cough*, damn it! I knew I shouldn't fly this thing without any experience beforehand! That short green alien must've been joking when he said I'll get a hang of it."

The person inside the cockpit complained loudly between his coughs. His figure was hidden beneath the black smoke, but the voice sounded eerily familiar to Anakin's ears. And that dialect...it wasn't the universal language that most people use. Anakin had learned numerous languages during his times as a Jedi, and this one in particular sounded like that one dialect that originated from somewhere in the planet Earth, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

That person sighed and said, "Not to mention that the ship looks more like scrap metal now. How much money do I have to pay for this? Such misfortune..."

The person came out of the cloud of black smoke and revealed himself. When Anakin finally realized who that person was, he very nearly burst out in laughter.

"A ha ha ha! What? I've fully expected that Obi-Wan would be the one chasing me down," he said between his laughs, changing his language to the same one the person was speaking. "But instead, they sent a boy after me? The Jedi must've gone crazy."

The person in front of him was a human boy no older than one of the Padawans he had slain, probably around sixteen years old. He had tanned skin as well as black spiky hair, and he wore a white hooded sweater and a black blazer over it, as well as equally black trousers. His appearance was so bland that he looked very unintimidating.

"Don't you think so, too? Kamijou Touma!?"

That was his name.

That was the name of the boy that stood in his path.

In response to Anakin's shouting, Kamijou walked closer and crouched down next to Padmé. He reached to her neck to feel her pulse, breathing out a sigh of relief afterwards. He seemed to mouth something akin to "Good, she's still alive." but Anakin couldn't hear him. Standing up, Kamijou gave Anakin a hard look.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" asked the boy with an angry tone.

"That's supposed to be my line. What do you think you're doing here? I'm actually having a hard time believing that you're the one who is supposed to be stopping me next."

"Next?" Kamijou let out. He thought about the implication of Anakin's choice of words and could only come up with one explanation. "Don't tell me...Amidala-san tried to stop you, so that's why she's like this now?!"

Anakin glanced at Padmé, moving his eyes ever so slightly to her form as to not let it show. He closed his eyes and answered, "That's right."

"Are you kidding me!? She's your wife, isn't she?! Isn't she one of your most precious people that you've sworn to protect?! If so, _why are you the one that's hurting her_?!"

Kamijou's words cut into Anakin Skywalker's conscience, or at least what was left of it. Gritting his teeth, the brunette Sith Lord reached out to the force and thrust out his right hand. The next thing that happened, an invisible force hit Kamijou's body and made him flew several meters backwards, hitting the floor before turning into a harsh roll along the ground. The boy coughed several times as he felt pressure around his lungs, but stood up eventually.

That just now was a push empowered by the Force; a mysterious power that came along with the existence of things. People who were Force-sensitive and are trained in its ways were able to wield its power to an extent and use it to create many kinds of supernatural phenomena. It was like magic in a way, but for Kamijou who had seen magic up close, it was something else entirely.

"What do you know?!" roared Anakin as his eyes began to show a yellow glint; a telltale sign of a Sith. "You're not the one who has to protect her! From the council, from the Jedi code, from the world!? It's been me all along! I'm the one who tried my hardest to protect her! But the Jedi couldn't...the Jedi wouldn't accept our marriage, with that damn code of theirs. The Jedi are corrupt! They're the ones who have been hurting her, not me! If I have to become a Sith to protect her from them, then so be it! Don't talk like you know everything so easily, you brat!"

Kamijou fell silent.

The former Jedi who was crying his heart out in front of him had a point. It was true that, with the code they held, the Jedi didn't allow marriage. They were similar to monks in that regard, not having any worldly connections whatsoever. If they were to find out that Anakin was married to Padmé, Kamijou honestly couldn't say what would happen.

Perhaps in the end, Anakin would have to fight the Jedi themselves to protect her.

Similar to what he once did for a certain Magic God.

But...

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" asked Kamijou in disbelief. His hands balled up into fists, clenching so hard he could barely feel his fingernails digging into the skin of his palm.

"Becoming a Sith to protect her? Killing the Jedi to protect her? Enough of that bullshit! You're just using her to justify your own actions! Even though you have to fight against the whole world, that's no reason to become a villain or a murderer! I don't know what your aim truly is, but have you tried to stop and see the result of this whole mess?"

"Why should I care? The Jedi had what was coming for them." Anakin answered with cold words, but Kamijou still continued.

"Maybe they did, I can't deny that. But that doesn't make it right for you to go on killing all of them. Would you still say the same if it was Ahsoka standing in your path? Would you still kill her knowing that she's your student?! If so, then I've lost all my respect for you."

Ahsoka Tano, the young Twi'lek Padawan that became Anakin's student, had been away on a mission with another Jedi Master. They weren't accompanied by any clone troopers, so their survival was highly likely. It was a stroke of luck that she hadn't been in Coruscant when Anakin—as Darth Vader—began his Jedi purge.

If she had...

"...I don't know where she is, but I'm glad she's not here. What do you think she would say when she sees her own teacher become the very thing he vowed to destroy?"

Anakin scoffed, "Hmph. Don't try to lecture me, boy. You haven't lived long enough to do that. I've seen through the lies of the Jedi, something that even the esteemed Master Yoda couldn't. I'll be the one to right the wrongs that they have done, and I'll do it as a Sith."

The newly-promoted Sith who was dubbed with the name 'Darth Vader' raised his right hand once more.

"I won't let anything stop me. Least of all you, Kamijou Touma."

Once again, he reached out to the Force and let loose a massive Force Push, more than enough to swat Kamijou away like a fly. The metal floor bent under the immense pressure as the invisible energy flew towards Kamijou.

A hit from that kind of attack would likely break his bones.

Yet, all he did was to thrust his right hand to hit that invisible force.

At the instant his right hand and the Force Push made contact, a sound like glass shattering resounded as the empty space in front of him rippled, but nothing else happened. He wasn't blown back to tens of meters behind, nor did he turn into dust at the sheer amount of power Anakin used in that push.

Blinking, Anakin wondered just what exactly happened. A counter Force Push? That wasn't likely. The boy in front of him was a normal human with no training on the ways of the Force, so him countering with another Force Push was impossible.

If so, what exactly happened just now?

Not only that, but someone who didn't receive any Jedi training, or had any knowledge of the Force, shouldn't be able to sense the attack coming. From Anakin's viewpoint, the way Kamijou swung his arm just as he was about to receive the hit made him believe that _he could see the attack coming_.

Grinding his teeth, Anakin once again attacked. This time, he raised his left hand and called upon the darker powers of the Force. From the tips of his left hand, electricity gathered, and white lightning was unleashed towards Kamijou's form. This was the Sith's most prominent technique, Force Lightning. It was capable of roasting even a full-grown Bantha alive given the appropriate amount of time.

And even that was nullified as it reached Kamijou's right hand.

"Uwah...that was too close. I've never seen anyone using lightning attacks like that other than Biribiri."

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Anakin roared in confusion. He was too ashamed to admit that he also felt a good amount of fear for that boy's unknown ability, so he didn't say it. "This is impossible. Your midichlorian count was 0, so there's no way you can even sense the Force no matter how hard you try! It was an absolute zero! So why..._why were you able to annihilate the Force I __used__ for my attacks?!_"

Kamijou's midichlorian count – which estimated how in-tune he was with the Force – was zero. Someone with not even a speck of midichlorian in his body would never have the chance to wield the Force. Yet, as it stood now, Kamijou's right hand was able to easily nullify the Anakin's Force attacks. Why so?

The answer to that was simple.

Imagine Breaker.

That was the name of the ability kept inside Kamijou's right hand. It had the power to negate any supernatural phenomena, be it esper ability, magic, and perhaps even God's miracles. Also...

"I don't really get it, but it seems this 'Force' thing you talk about falls under the 'supernatural phenomena' category." Kamijou answered casually. "That means it's something my right hand can destroy."

In the time of an unexpected turn of events, panic would arise in one's mind.

Although this wasn't the first time Anakin experienced it, facing such an unprecedented opponent had completely caught him off guard. This was nothing like a Jedi's ability, nor a Sith's. This was something else entirely.

Fear gripped his mind, but his heart was still coldly calm.

Anakin had no knowledge of what kind of power that could negate the Force itself, but he wasn't by any means powerless. Just because his opponent could seize his control of the Force didn't mean he became weaker.

"Keh...I don't know what the deal is with your right hand, but you're wrong to think that you have a chance against me."

Reaching to his utility belt, Anakin pulled out a small tube-like object. It was the size of a motorcycle's throttle, but looked nothing like it. With a flick on its button, one of its ends ignited in a pale blue light. It was a lightsaber; a laser-based blade that could cut through anything. A favored weapon by Force wielders like the Jedi and the Sith, it was powered by a crystal imbued with energy from the Force.

It was no simple blade.

"It seems your only weapon is that right hand of yours. If that's your only strength, I'll just lop it off your wrist and kill you afterwards."

It didn't need to be only his right hand. Any part of Kamijou was a fragile target in the face of a lightsaber, so Anakin could attack anywhere. However, as he felt very intimidated by that mysterious right hand, he felt that he needed to give priority to disposing it first.

The weaponless Kamijou stood fast.

Unlike Anakin, Kamijou didn't bring any weapons at all. He never did get any Jedi training, so he wouldn't know how to fight with a lightsaber. Heck, he never even learned kendo, so an amateur like him would only hurt himself if he tried. The Sith Lord in front of him was the strongest Jedi to date – a midichlorian count that surpassed even Master Yoda's – and there was no doubt that he had dangerous skills with both his lightsaber and knowledge of the Force.

Faced with that terrifying enemy, Kamijou could only clench his fist.

His only weapon was the right hand that could break illusions, the Imagine Breaker.

And that was more than enough.

"There's one thing I want to say before we fight."

"Hoh? So you do have last words?" Anakin asked with a sneer.

Kamijou didn't react to the taunt, only hardening his gaze at the one person that he was once proud to call a friend.

"I'll definitely save you."

Silence filled the air, only the erupting volcanoes giving any sound whatsoever. A moment later, Anakin broke out in laughter.

"Kuh...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Interesting! I almost thought that you want to show off and talk about how you will defeat me, but I never saw _that_ coming. Are you really that naïve to think that you can turn me back!?" Anakin's metallic right hand, the one that was holding his lightsaber, swung to the right as if to cut off all links he had with the boy in front of him.

"So naïve...too terribly naïve! I'll show you what powers I've gained from the dark side, and destroy any hopes you have of fighting us!"

Kamijou didn't respond, however he took a step forward. He took another, another after that, and walked calmly back to the center of the landing pad.

"Anakin Skywalker...you may be a convicted criminal, you may be a mass murderer, and you might be the worst type of scum to walk on this whole universe...but I know you're not a coward. You're not the type to run away from the mistakes you made. You stood by Amidala-san's side ever since you married her as proof of that courage. That's why...I'll take you back from the dark side. I won't let you run away now!"

The boy that represented the hope of the light side clenched his fists and declared,

"If you think you can turn your back on all of your sins, then let me destroy that selfish illusion of yours right here and now!"

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**Pitting a high school student against the strongest Jedi of all times?**

**Why not? Seems like a normal Kamijou-misfortune to me.**

**I don't know why, but this idea came up when I was thinking about Kamijou Touma's dream of creating 'an ending where everyone comes home with a smile on their face', and his ability to do just that. He's such an epic character that he shits awesomeness.**

**Then I thought, why not have him drag a tragic character out of the darkness?**

**That's where Anakin Skywalker comes to mind.**

**Although, I have to admit that I didn't quite portray Anakin as he really was as a character. I can't do it, really. After all, I need to make this short enough for it to be an uncomplicated oneshot, but detailed enough for Touma to have a reason to fight him. Thus, I think I've probably turned Anakin into a 'common antagonist'. Sorry, Star Wars fans.**

**Basically, Touma's reason to fight here is 'to drag back he who fell to the darkness, back to the light', similar to what he did to most people he fought. I don't know how Star Wars fans would handle it, but why not let that boy destroy George Lucas's illusions and end the series with everyone smiling?**

**Still, I have no idea how this would turn out as a story. Authors and authors-to-be out there, feel free to take this as an inspiration. You can either create a story stemming from this oneshot, change it the way you see fit, heck I don't have any qualms if you want to make a completely different story. As I said, this is an idea box, not a challenge fic.**

**Then, let me close this discontinued story and hope for it to be continued.**

**...**

**Just how will the Imagine Breaker boy divert the Chosen One's destiny?**


	2. Story 2: Is This a Spirit?

**Ever thought of what a zombie's eternal life would bring?**

**Kukuku...**** These rabbits are really something. I'd normally not think about making outrageous crossovers and rather try to follow the mainstream, but the plots are popping up everywhere.**

**In this story, I'll let you imagine how a chainsaw-wielding, cross-dressing zombie will fare against beings known as Spirits.**

**In the meantime, I'm going to think about Deidara's mouth-hands and how he would use it to fap.**

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Second Story: Is This a Spirit?

In the year of 20XX...

Don't start asking me why I use the infamous XX's to hide the year. Would you give me a break? I've lived long enough that being forgetful about the year is tolerable.

Anyway, in this period of time, the world is threatened by the appearance of 'spacequakes'. It has been so since several years past, probably sixteen or eighteen years ago. It's a little different than earthquakes, in which spacequakes can occur anywhere at any time (they're not limited to the ground as earthquakes are) and are a lot more destructive. The biggest one occurred around sixteen years ago, which served as its debut appearance.

Since then, human beings begin to learn about them.

I don't really know the details, but we do learn one thing.

The spacequakes are a telltale sign of the appearance of a 'Spirit'.

What is a Spirit? Well, I myself have wondered about that as well, so I'm quite familiar with that problem. Sadly, being a 'normal' high school student, I hadn't been able come up with a proper explanation.

...Until now, that is.

I should've known not to get too curious about it. Just this morning when I asked Itsuka, a classmate of mine, for his opinion, he already told me not to get too involved with that sort of thing – saying it's too dangerous and stuff. Of course, I thought that he was exaggerating, but him trying tso dodge the subject every time I bring it up is pretty strange, so I changed my strategy. The stubborn part of me refused to sit back being ignorant and, as a result of mine's own curiosity, ended up stalking him.

However, I was once again reminded that, in this world, there are many secrets which are better left untouched

From that point on, the real life of Itsuka Shidou became clear to me.

"...Oi, oi...are you serious?"

—That was my first reaction when I saw Itsuka getting shot by...something.

At first, all I had done was just a simple stalking. Yes, I'm not afraid to admit it, but I stalked Itsuka as he was on a date with this new transfer student called Yatogami Tohka. She was a cheerful black-haired bishoujo, but you can easily relate her to an airhead character from a dating sim. Strangely enough, she was already head-over-heels with Itsuka (that sly bastard), which led me to believe that they were acquainted before this.

Honestly, that was all I thought. I just wanted to know how Itsuka and Yatogami came to be, so I simply followed them. Of course, I'm also doing this on behalf of the other jealous boys in our class. I'm sticking my neck out under the heat of the great sun here, so they better be grateful. It's a good thing I brought an umbrella today, otherwise I would really dry up.

Then, this happened.

—All of a sudden, when both of them went to a hill to see the sun set, Itsuka pushed Yatogami away and ended up getting shot.

A sniper? No matter where I look, I couldn't find any. But the football-sized hole in Itsuka's chest proved that he had indeed gotten shot by nothing short of an anti-tank rifle. Still, who would be crazy enough to shoot a normal high school boy with such a weapon? Did someone hold a grudge on him?

Even then, I didn't have time to think about that.

Yatogami, who also seemed to be having a hard time believing that Itsuka had been shot, slowly walked over to his body. I watched her as she uselessly draped her school blazer over him, not caring if it became stained by the pool of blood underneath it. She muttered something that I couldn't hear, which perhaps some words directed to Itsuka, but I can't be certain. Then, all of a sudden, she yelled out to the sky above.

"The world denied me!"

Yatogami raised her hand towards the sky and somehow, almost magically, black lightning came crashing down on her. I seriously thought she was going to die by the lightning strike, but no. Even stranger was the fact that her body suddenly lit up magnificently.

"_Adonai Melek_!"

She shouted out something that sounded religious, not that I know anything about it. Right after that, her clothes changed. She now wore what seemed to be a purple dress or battle armor...like something out of a game. Before I can comprehend what was happening before my eyes, she stomped on the ground and brought up something large from the ground. It rose behind her, something large and golden.

And, no, this is not a good time to make dirty jokes about it. I'm currently shitting myself here, so please understand my situation!

It was a throne of some sort. The black-haired beauty then jumped onto the throne and pulled something out. Is that...a sword?

"_Sandalphon_!"

A big-ass sword, or what you would call a buster sword. It was larger than Yatogami herself, so I was left wondering how in the world is she able to hold that up. Sera would've been baffled as well. Anyway, afterwards she stabbed that large sword into the throne, dragging it along and making a large cut...?

Is it me, or did that throne just shattered and merged with the earlier sword? And am I imagining it, or did that sword _really_ became even _bigger_?!

"_Halvanhelev_!"

Enough with the names already! Just how much evolution stage are you going to go through?!

Ah, Yatogami's raising that sword up right now. It seemed so full of dark energy that it looked like it would burst any time now.

"How could you? How could you, how could you, how could you, how could you, HOW COULD YOU!?"

She was really pissed off. That dark energy I mentioned just now was released in a slash and flew towards a cliff several kilometers away, slashing it in two. Was that a Ge***ga Te*shou just now?!

It didn't make sense.

It didn't make any sense! Just what kind of person is Yatogami Tohka?!

She flew away even before I managed to confirm it. "Damn, this is getting too screwed up for me. Just what in the world is going on, dammit!"

I actually would love to hear an answer for my question... First things first, though, I have to get Itsuka out of here. I rushed over to him, leaving my umbrella behind. The sun's heat wasn't that unbearable anymore because it was already setting, so I didn't really need it anyway. As I got to Itsuka, I realize that this would take more than simply calling an ambulance.

"Ugh...uph..." I held back the urge to vomit as I saw the hole in his body. It was too grotesque for me to believe that it was real (Thank God for the T-rating that gave it mosaic). Nevertheless, this was the reality, and Itsuka really did get shot. He really was _dead_.

...Huh?

"Hey...what's this flame doing here?"

A trickle of flame lit up around Itsuka's wound. I tried putting it out, but I ended up nearly burning my hand.

"Hot! It's really hot! Eh...huh? The wound is...closing?"

The flame was sizzling like it was burning something, but instead of being burned, Itsuka's fatal wound was closing. The whole process felt so magical I had a hard time believing it. Is this natural? Or is it something else that I don't understand and was happening for some reason? I don't know, but one thing's very much certain, though...

Itsuka wasn't dead.

"Haa...haa...damn, that nearly gave me a heart attack. Don't suddenly go dying on me like that, sheesh."

I was glad that nothing further happened. It would be bad if Itsuka was caught dead when the whole class left me in charge of stalking him. Worst case scenario, they'd think that I killed him. And no, on the off-chance that I was _that_ jealous of Itsuka for having a girlfriend, I wouldn't go as far as killing him.

—But anyway, I have to tell Yatogami about this.

...Speaking of which, that fairy-like girl was currently slashing away at something on a nearby cliff. Waves after waves of that black energy slashes flew from her oversized sword. Whatever she was fighting, it seemed she was going at it with the intent to kill.

I don't know why, but I felt a need to stop her.

If Itsuka's death was the cause of her rage, then maybe I can stop her by showing that he wasn't dead.

With that, I made my way to her place while dashing in full speed.

**x o x o**

Things turned out to be worse than I expected, though!

Yatogami's target turned out to be a white-haired girl in a skimpy mecha-like clothing. She was kneeling on the ground, unmoving, but there was an almost transparent barrier protecting her from the energy slashes.

What kind of sci-fi movie is this?!

...Wait.

That's... Tobiichi Origami?! That star student from my class? What the hell is she...

Argh, I give up. There are too much unexplained things happening here for me to complain about it!

Next to Tobiichi is a sniper rifle. The size of it was staggering; it's no doubt an anti-tank rifle. Could it be that she was the one who shot Itsuka? But...judging by how she wasn't moving and did nothing as Yatogami's attacks hit her constantly, was she feeling guilty about it?

In the first place, Itsuka got shot after pushing Yatogami away. Perhaps he got shot by accident, and the real target was Yatogami?

"...Kaaaah! This isn't the time to be thinking about it, but it confuses me to no end!"

Oh Gaia, why am I being put through this kind of mess again?

I would usually jump in without seeing left and right, but the situation was too bizarre for me to even do that. What should I do? Who should I fight? Should I fight Yatogami and stop her rampage? Or...seeing that Tobiichi attacked Itsuka, fight her and demand an explanation from her?

...God dammit.

"Just give me a break already!"

The answer was pretty obvious, now that I think about it.

What would demanding Tobiichi an explanation do if she dies? There's no way I can ask her anything if she ended up being slashed in two by Yatogami.

In that regard...

I need to stop Yatogami first!

Another slash is coming. Now's my chance!

"Die, die, die, DIE!"

As the sword was once again en route to Tobiichi's barrier thingy, I did what any desperate man in that kind of situation would do.

_I punched the oversized sword from the side._

"200%!"

I shouted as my right fist hit on the side of Yatogami's sword. I don't mean to brag, but I managed to slightly divert the sword's trajectory and made it hit the ground beside Tobiichi. The scary thing was that it dug a hole at least half the sword's length. I wonder what would happen if a human body was put under it.

"What...?!" I heard Yatogami let out in surprise.

Still, 200% of arm muscle strength doesn't seem to be enough. All I could do was tilting the sword slightly. I think I'll have to go all out.

"You...you're a normal human? How did you...?"

Yatogami looked more surprised than I expected. It seemed like she never expected someone to be able to punch her sword away.

"...W-Wow, that's a rather cold greeting to a classmate. A ha ha..."

I tried to act cool, but ended up being too nervous to say anything more daring. But I think I can be cool enough by stepping in to save a girl like a hero like this. Speaking about saving a girl, it seemed Tobiichi finally noticed my presence.

"...You're..."

Oh?! Does she remember my name?!

"...Who are you?"

"This is disappointing somehow!?"

Ah, well, I can't expect someone like her to remember an underachieving student like me. Not that I would expect anything more out of it.

"A-Anyway, Yatogami! Stop this already! Even though Itsuka was shot, it's okay, because he's already—!"

"Shidou...?" Yatogami said, cutting me off. "That's right, Shidou...he was shot. Shidou was shot to death. Shidou died...he died, he died, he died, he died! That woman...she killed my Shidou!"

Uwa...talk about girl rage. I don't think she was listening to me up until the end; she was lost in her own world as it was.

Once again, she raised her sword high and let a mass of dark energy gather up around it. She was going to release another energy attack at point blank range?! What an unreasonable person!

"I'll never forgive her! I'll never forgive her even if she dies a hundred times!"

This is bad. At this range, both Tobiichi and I would be turned into tomato paste by the attack. I'll have to block that sword again.

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"800%!"

—Once more.

Punching the sword from below, I once more blocked the sword and deflected it. However, the effect on my arm after that was horrifying, because it broke from the elbow down afterwards. I could literally feel my right arm dangling at my side.

"Ouchouchouchouch! That freaking hurts!"

"You... Are you really a normal human?" Behind me, Tobiichi asked this.

My arm was still hurting, but leaving her hanging with a question like that wouldn't be nice, so I stuffed the pain and explained.

"That's...not entirely correct," I paused and pulled my arm back into shape. This might sound strange, but the way I'm doing it might look like my elbow's joint was just dislocated. But, no, my entire arm had certainly broken apart.

Why am I able to fix myself like this?

"A normal human wouldn't be able to use enough muscle power to block that sword with a punch. Even if they want to, they simply can't because of their natural limiters."

"...Normally, a human's limit might measure up to 25 to bordering 50 percent."

"Yeah, that's right." I said while nodding, "I'm a zombie, though, so I don't have those limiters."

That's right.

I'm a zombie.

Because I'm a zombie, I am able to use the muscles in my body to its fullest extent, even to the point where I can double or triple that impossible limit. My muscles would tear apart afterwards, but they would heal later on. And besides, with a body that barely feels pain, that wouldn't exactly be a problem. The downside to being a zombie was that I couldn't stand the sunlight, though.

"Zom...bie?"

"The introductions can wait, for now we need to stop Yatogami! Itsuka is still alive and she's being angry for nothing!"

"Itsuka Shidou...is still alive?"

"Yeah, he is! So wipe that guilty look from your face and help me stop her already!"

Tobiichi's surprise last longer than I thought, but she complied and put her game face on immediately. It was a shame; I was still raveling in her rare moments of displaying emotions. I thought she was like Eu from the first glance, but I guess she wasn't that expressionless after all.

"What should I do?"

"...For now, I need something to shield us first. How long can your barrier keep holding off Yatogami's attacks?"

"Another minute...might be shorter."

"Then, twenty seconds will do. I...have to transform for a bit."

"? Transform?"

Even as a zombie, I wouldn't be able to ward off Yatogami for long. This body might be immortal, but she could easily disable me by cutting of my limbs one by one, and at that time Tobiichi would be left open. I need more power to restrain her.

...And if my worst guess is correct...

I might be standing face to face with a real Spirit.

"Put up the barrier now, Tobiichi!"

"...Right. Reconstructing barrier, now."

A faint transparent light engulfed us in a dome-like shape. Tobiichi said that she could only buy me time less than a minute, so I have to hurry myself.

"_Mystletainn!_"

What I shouted was not some nonsense gibberish; it was a name. It was a weapon's name.

That weapon's form was a pink chainsaw.

After it sailed through the sky and crash-landed beside me, I took hold of it and put it in front of me.

Tobiichi looked at me in confusion, "That's..."

"Just a little bit more, hang in there!"

I closed my eyes and began a magical chant that I've memorized for a long time. It was a spell that would enable to transform and change into a stronger me.

"_Nomobuyo. Oshi. Hashitawa. Dokeda. Gunmicha. De, ribura!_"

This might sound strange coming from me, but the transformation wasn't as epic as when Yatogami did it. Well, rather than that, it's better to say that her transformation suits her while mine don't.

The reason why is because I, a guy, had transformed into a magical existence known as a Masou Shoujo (Magiclad Girl).

In other words, my transformation made me cross-dress as a magical girl with a frilly pink dress, complete with pink beret and gloves.

In a way, this was really embarrassing.

Tobiichi, who stood in front of me, looked back and widened her eyes at my new form.

"...Can it be that you..."

Oh? Does she know about Masou Shoujo?

"...are a pervert?"

"I'm once again disappointed!"

This wasn't the first time I was mistaken as a pervert because of my transformation. It's not like I could do anything about it, either! I didn't want to turn into a frill-covered magical girl in the first place! This is all Haruna's fault!

"More importantly, I'm ready now. Leave the rest to me!"

"...But, against the 'Princess', you can't fight her alone."

"Don't worry about it. The current me is much stronger than the me from several minutes ago."

And that was true.

Changing into a Masou Shoujo didn't only give me immunity towards the sunlight, but it enhanced my overall strength as well. It had something to do with magic.

Tobiichi wasn't entirely convinced, but she nodded in compliance and moved away. Now it was just me against Yatogami. To note, she still looked pissed off beyond reckoning.

"...Sheesh. Would you just calm down for a second and hear what I have to say?"

Yatogami's reply was simple.

"You...you helped that wench who killed Shidou. You're her ally, aren't you? Unforgivable...you're unforgivable as well!" She declared that while raising her sword once more.

"I figured as much..." In response, I readied my chainsaw, Mystletainn, and let the magic-powered engine roar to life.

The battle was starting.

I figured that the winner would be decided by who attacks first, so I attacked.

Jumping up to meet Yatogami's height as she was hovering on the air, I front-flipped multiple times while raising my right leg high.

"Mystletainn Kick!"

Yatogami prepared to block with her sword, but I knew for certain that she got confused by the attack's name. Because, although it was named 'Mystletainn Kick', I brought down my chainsaw rather than my foot.

"?! It's not a kick...?!"

As my chainsaw clashed with Yatogami's oversized sword, sparks flew everywhere before our eyes. This was truly an intense battle.

. . .

Ah, there's a good chance I'll die after this, so it might take a while to revive afterwards. So perhaps I better introduce myself now rather than later.

My name is Aikawa Ayumu.

I'm a zombie. Also, a Masou Shoujo.

* * *

**Well, another crazy idea thought up. I'm beginning to think that getting crazy isn't so bad after all.**

**But anyway, for those who didn't know, that was a crossover idea for [Date A Live] and [Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?]. It's supposed to be a humor-filled story, with KZD being involved and all. I initially thought about making Ayumu a Spirit as well, but I then read that Spirits were supposed to an all-girls stuff. Thus, I revoked the idea and made him just a zombie and a Magiclad Girl.**

**...Kehehe, though he might be mistaken for a Spirit in the end. It'd be funny to see Kotori forcing Shidou to capture Ayumu because of that kind of misunderstanding. Kehehe, this story might even get fujoshi readers who like BL...**

**Wait.**

**NO. I'm sorry, that's a definite no-no. Although it'd be funny, please refrain from yaoi!**


	3. Story 3: The True Meaning of a Monster

**You know, after dealing with multiple ridiculous monstrosities in life, you ought to have a little bit of a monster of a mind yourself. In my case, the byproduct of that is this equally ridiculous crossover.**

**And I thought my idea bag could restrain the plot bunnies... Oh, whatever.**

**Well then, ladies and gentlemen! Though doing this might make me look like I don't give a shit about my other projects, let me introduce you to a crossover birthed from plot bunnies that tentacle-rape their human prey before eating them!**

**...Actually, that made me sound like too much of a maniac.**

* * *

**Third Story:** The True Meaning of a Monster

The world is wrong.

That is what I was led to believe. Or at least, that is what most people think.

This became the thought of almost all people that walked on this very Earth. Whether they're a waiter, a police officer, a boss of some high-end company, or just some lowly thug, at some point of their life they had that kind of thought.

They aren't wrong. But they are not exactly right, either.

In my opinion, the world is simply _misunderstood_.

As we walk on this misunderstood world, it's only natural for us to become misunderstood. There is nothing wrong with us or the world as a whole; we're just misunderstood.

That is what I truly believe.

But no one has to believe in what I believe. I'm just a nobody that consequently gets into trouble and, like all other people, I'm frequently misunderstood.

No one would understand a problem child that causes nothing but trouble. No one would understand an orphan who didn't have any relative. No one would understand a brother who lost his sister to a gang of hoodlums.

In retrospect, I should've tried harder and made myself easier to understand. Even so, I was born an orphan, so I had little time to learn how to do it.

The only people who could understand me...well, they would have to be misunderstood people like me.

In reality, that was exactly what happened.

All alone in Japan's capital city of Tokyo, I was saved by a misunderstood family.

I was saved by a family of _ghouls_.

Even as a kid as I was that time, I had knowledge of them. They were supposed to be man-eating monsters, I had thought. I've watched the news, how there were many types of ghouls and how all of them survive by eating human flesh. At first, I was frightened, being a human myself. The thought of being eaten by beings that resemble humans shook me so much I almost threw up.

Only...they were different.

The family that saved me was different. Of course, I should've realized that sooner. What kind of ghoul would save a human in the first place? What kind of ghoul would shelter a human in their home without actually _eating_ them? What kind of ghoul would protect that same human boy from other ghouls, losing their lives in the process?

It was around that time that I started to believe that the world is just misunderstood, not wrong.

People...humans fear ghouls because they eat humans.

Then what does that make the ghoul family that saved me?

Because, compared to the people that ignored me as they pass along the streets, they were more _human_.

...

Compared to this ghoul investigator who had a manic smile on his face...

_They were very much more human indeed._

I mean, what kind of human would try and slash a woman's head off?

"I get that a ghoul investigator's job is to exterminate ghouls, but seriously. Executing a woman using her husband's _kagune_? You have a bad sense of humor, 'ttebayo."

Normal logic wouldn't usually apply to ghouls, but my common sense screamed at how wrong that method was nonetheless.

The white-haired ghoul investigator's manic smile didn't disappear. If anything, it widened even more, and that one eye that he opened wider than the other was starting to give me the creeps.

"Aah? Yet another ghoul appearing? You filthy creatures do pop up continuously like the scum you are, keh he he he."

I really don't like the way he laugh.

"I could say the same to you. What are you ghoul investigators doing here in the first place? Isn't the other wards enough entertainment for you fuckers?"

"Well, well, I can't actually disclose any information, but it seems this ward is becoming more and more interesting." The man's right hand slightly shook his weapon, a _quinque_, and let it jingle around a bit. It's a _bikaku_-type _quinque_, I notice. Its shape would've made Kubo **te scream "copyright infringement". As if weapons impersonating Zabimaru wasn't too many already.

_Quinques_ are weapons taken from a ghouls _kagune, _while _kagune_ itself is an organ unique only to ghouls, so basically, one would have to extract that organ out of a dead ghoul if they want to make a _quinque_.

That knowledge alone cemented the fact that 'that person'...is already dead.

"But what's thiiis? I didn't expect a big-shot like you to be playing around here. I would've thought a troublemaking ghoul like you would hang out in the 11th or the 24th...right, _Knight_?"

'Knight'.

That was my codename amongst CCG's ghoul investigators.

For some reason, I'm being mistaken for a ghoul. Not that I mind, since I am actually on their side in this kind of situation. But they really haven't figured out that I'm not a ghoul, have they? This world is more misunderstood than I thought.

The big guy next to the creepily-smiling old man, undoubtedly another ghoul investigator, looked surprised at the revelation.

"Blonde hair, medium build, a red sword and a black shield, and that mask...it really is the Knight."

"That's right, Amon-kun! We've came across a big fish this time!"

"...My apologies. I should've made preparations for this kind of outcome."

"No need to worry, Amon-kun," said the white-haired investigator with a sneer. "Getting surprises from time to time helps you train your instincts as well. Let this one be a lesson for tomorrow onwards."

Nodding to his senior, the big guy opened his suitcase and drew his own _quinque_. It was a huge, halberd-like weapon with a blunt end which was shaped like an oil drum.

I ground my teeth.

I was up against two investigators who had their own _quinque_. Fighting elites like them would prove too much even for me, and I'm not confident enough to say I'm able to fight them while protecting someone behind my back.

"Ryoko-san..." I called to the woman behind me.

"Y-Yes?"

It seemed like she was still shaken. Not that I could blame her; she was almost killed. Moreover, she just found out that her husband was killed and remodeled into a weapon. I was impressed that she didn't snap through all that.

"I can hold them off for a few minutes. At that time, run away as far away as you can."

The woman, Ryoko-san, widened her eyes in shock. "Run? But what about you?! You're up against those Doves, there's nothing you can do!"

"Oi, oi, you make it sound like I have no chance of winning. Cut me some slack, will you? It would take more than that Accelerator look-alike and his too-big bodyguard to take me down."

"But...!"

I gave Ryoko-san a glance from my shoulder. For some reason, I thought that her _kagune _which was shaped like a butterfly's wings would help me in a fight, but that's preposterous. I won't ask a mother to fight and risk her life when her daughter's around.

"Hinami-chan is waiting for you. I won't let you die here and make her cry afterwards. Crying girls are my weakness, 'ttebayo."

"But, Naruto-kun—!"

"Run."

There's no way I'm taking no for an answer.

"I still have a debt to repay to the ghoul family that saved me. If I let you die now, I won't be able to look at them in the eye."

Ryoko-san hesitated a little before nodding and turning to leave. She casted another look at me and said, "Be sure to come back."

"Tell the manager to brew me a cup of coffee. Fighting two ghoul investigators is worth that much, at least."

I might be bluffing. I couldn't tell at the time.

But I know one thing for sure.

I'll stop these ghoul investigators...these monsters who threatened my current family.

"Done with the melodramatic play? Heh! I swear, you ghouls try so hard at copying human emotions that it sickens me."

"Haven't you looked at yourself in the mirror, old man? You try so hard at copying a horse's anus that your face is starting to look like one."

When excited, my tongue seems to run on its own. I'm surprised I even have this talent.

"Keh...ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! INTERESTING! It seems that not only you don't fear death, you're asking to die right here and now! Very well...I'll exterminate you and take those two _quinque_ from you. If I'm lucky, I might even take your _kagune_ as well! !"

"Just try, you fucking rip-off."

In my right hand was a red broadsword, pulsating as if it was alive; a _bikaku_-type _quinque_, [Jaëger]

I took it from my ghoul father's _kagune_ remains.

Attached to my left arm was a black glove fused with a black shield with an intimidating motive, power coursing through its veins; a _koukaku_-type _quinque_, [Kurosaki]

I took it from my ghoul mother's _kagune_ remains.

I inherited their strength. Me, a normal human being...though using these two weapons so casually passes me off as anything but normal.

And this time, I'll protect what I hold precious.

"I'll teach you not to mess with a family."


	4. Story 4: Absolute Ruler

**The only thing I hate more than clichéd, overused anime fanservice is a clichéd, overused anime seiyuu and a so-called 'Irregulars'.**

**For crying out loud, does [Absolute Duo] really have to gloss over how special irregular-type main characters are with the tendency of pitching him with fanservices after fanservices? This is so clichéd you might as well call it a fanfic. And the fact that the main character's seiyuu happened to be SAO's Black Swordsman and Trinity Seven's Grimoire Holder (both ****of ****whom**** had the illogical tendency to make girls everywhere fall for them for no apparent reason other than being a main character) ****doesn't help that either.**

**Well, one thing's for sure****:**** an 'irregular' has a high selling point.**

**Maybe that is why I'm introducing yet another irregular into that story.**

**In this story where students manifest their soul into weapons, I'll try my best to introduce one such student who manifests his soul in another way.**

**In the meantime, I'll be thinking about how Inuyasha never had to cut his hair considering its length.**

* * *

**Fourth Story**: Absolute Ruler

In this world, there were people who could manifest their souls and turn them into weapons.

Whether it is a sword, an arrow, a spear, an axe, or even a set of throwing knives, they could manifest their souls into any one kind of weapons and use it in battles.

That power to manifest one's soul was called «Blaze».

And the people who have this ability, the "Exceeds", are ones who stood at the peak of humanity.

The power known as «Blaze» is brought forth when someone who is compatible with the mysterious substance [Luciful] is injected with said substance. That substance has the power to activate an Exceed's power such that it awakens their Blaze – the power of their soul.

Also, there is one school that houses those amazing people, called Kōryō Academy

It is a school that teaches the students there about combat and how to use their Blaze.

Naturally, those who have their Blaze activated are drawn to this school. Not including its over-the-top facilities and accommodation, even an idiot would enroll there when they find out that their body is compatible with the [Luciful], which is a kind of blessing that not everyone can have.

Entrance is a given for those who are classified as Exceeds.

...However, it didn't turn out to be as easy as it seems.

Now, let's go back to the current story. As of the moment, there were more than fifty people who enrolled at Kōryō Academy. Those blessed students were going to start their first day of school after attending the principal's welcoming speech as well as the student representative's speech.

For some reason, though, things didn't go as clichéd as that.

No matter what, this was not a normal school made for normal people. This was a school for those who had activated their Blaze and was built in order for them to learn how to wield them properly.

And thus...

"Now, you will proceed to duel with your partners."

Such a thing was said by someone who was supposedly the school's director.

Not long ago, the principal had just finished his welcoming speech. The next event should've been the student representative's speech, but the one who stepped up was instead a young girl clad in black Gothic Lolita clothing.

And she had proceeded to say that line.

"Only the winners would be accepted into the academy. The losers will have their Luciful extracted and will leave the academy," said the girl with a small smile.

Of course, this caused quite the uproar. After all, the academy had made no announcement that they would hold a duel for those who enrolled at the academy. It was not wrong to call it excessive.

But in the end, it was all for naught. The loli director even went as far as saying that the duel was an entrance exam, so they left the students no choice.

She had instilled the will to win at all costs to the students who had merely enrolled. They were then forced to fight against the person sitting next to them using the power of their souls, «Blaze».

"...But really, this is ridiculous," a boy said with a groan. "When I enrolled, I thought I'd spend my first days here without any hitches and live a flowery high school life. But now, not only do I NOT get to see a beautiful upperclassman giving a welcoming speech, we end up having to fight of all things? That gothic lolita girl's one messed up director, don't you think?"

His opponent was a blue-eyed, black-haired girl. She looked like a proper girl befitting the image of a class representative.

The girl had already manifested her Blaze. It took the form of a naginata; a spear with a one-sided blade on its point. It was a weapon meant for women in the feudal era as opposed to the katana which men wielded, but it was dangerous all the same.

The girl then responded nonchalantly, "I agree, but that is how it is. The loser in this fight will lose their place in the academy, won't they? Sorry, but I didn't come here to lose."

"No, no, there's no need to apologize. I just don't get how you can still be so calm about this."

"I told you, this is how it is," the girl said while sighing. "Kōryō Academy is a school that teaches combat strategy and the like, so it's only natural that the enrolling students have to fight at some point. It sure is unexpected that we have to fight on the first day, though."

Despite her surprise, she had no hesitation about achieving victory. The girl was a surprisingly willful girl.

The boy sighed.

"You...are you perhaps here for a certain reason?"

"? Yes...it involves my family's standing a bit, but what of it?"

"...*sigh*, this complicate things. Dammit, it'd be nice if I'm up against a power-hungry opponent, but this girl is so sincere it feels guilty just to face her."

"What are you muttering about?"

The boy lifted his face and stated, "I'm sorry, but can I just surrender?"

"...huh?"

The girl made a bewildered face.

"Are you...are you honestly asking that?"

"Well...yeah. It's not that I underestimate you or anything, though!" The boy waved his hand in front of him in a panicky manner. "You see, unlike you, I have no particular reason to be here. In all honesty, even though this _is_ Kōryō Academy, I don't really have to be accepted here."

"What? But all Exceeds have to enroll here. I heard that the [Luciful] injected in us is provided by the academy, so it's only natural."

"Ah, yeah...about that," the boy scratched the back of his head with an apologetic smile. "My case is a bit different. I don't intend to elaborate, but let's just say I don't really have a problem about losing. I'll go ahead and give up."

"..."

For some people, this might've brought elation. Winning the duel meant getting a spot in the prestigious Kōryō Academy, so getting your opponent to give up so easily was a convenient shortcut.

However...

"Don't joke with me," the girl spat out. "Just because I said I didn't want to lose doesn't mean I like winning through such a cheap method. I will defeat you fair and square through a duel."

"W-Woah, woah, hold up. I said I don't wanna fight!"

"You have no choice in the matter. So grit your teeth and prepare yourself, you pacifist!" The girl cried out as she charged forward, her naginata pulled back and ready to attack. "If you won't draw your sword, then I'll just defeat you here and now!"

Disturbed by the girl's readiness to fight, the boy nearly tripped on his own foot as he dodged the spear thrust to the side. He kept dodging every thrusts and swings without taking the offensive.

"Would you just—HEY, THAT WAS DANGEROUS! GYAA, YOU NEARLY TOOK MY HEAD OFF! Just listen to me for one short second, would you?!"

"We've got no time to chat. When the time limit comes, it'll be disqualification for both of us." The black-haired girl coolly stated. "If you have time to run your mouth, you really should pull out your Blaze. I don't want to lose, but winning against a weaponless opponent goes against my policy."

"You really sound like some high-class battle princess just now..."

"...Flattery will not get you anywhere."

Despite her cold reaction, the girl clearly didn't expect to be complimented. It was faint, but there was a slight trace of a blush on her cheeks.

But commenting about how cute that looked would not help the boy win the fight. Thanks to the girl's eagerness to fight and win fair and square, the boy was left with no option but to fight back.

"*sigh*...I really shouldn't be fighting. I don't really want to manifest it, but you're leaving me no choice."

"So you finally understand. Well then, I'll give you a chance to draw your Blaze, so do it quickly so we can resume our duel."

The boy stared at the girl with a deadpan expression similar to someone hearing a bad joke. He continued to do so before sighing again.

"You really don't get it, do you? I meant it when I said don't want to use my Blaze. Honestly, I was doing this for your sake more than mine, but you're too damn persistent. All I'm saying is, don't blame me for what happens afterwards."

"?"

The boy grumbled and raised his hand.

The activation of Blaze was done by holding up one's hand over their chest, creating a gesture that implied taking out their own soul.

However, the boy did no such thing.

Rather than putting his hand over his chest, he brought it to the front of his forehead.

"...Blaze."

**-xo-  
**

Right at that instant, everyone collapsed.

Every student who had been fighting suddenly collapsed as if they were being dragged down by an invisible force.

It wasn't on the mere range of two or three people around him. All of the students in the room had downright collapsed and could do nothing but sit or kneel. Somehow, they could not summon any strength to stand up.

The reason for this was fear.

In each and every of the student's hearts, a nearly primal fear came over. The feeling similar to being peered down by a humongous predator crept into the minds of the students.

"W-What?"

Several meters away, a brown-haired boy who had summoned an Irregular Blaze in the form of a shield widened his eyes as his opponent suddenly fell to her knees.

"O-Oi, Imari, are you okay? What's wrong?" the boy, Kokonoe Tooru, called out.

The girl didn't answer. She could only cross her arms around to hug her shoulders and trembled mightily as if she was in a blizzard.

"What...what is this…? I can't...move!"

The girl, Imari, looked like she was being anchored to the ground. She couldn't move her limbs no matter how much she willed them to, and that inability brought up a distraught expression to her face.

Tooru himself had a notion of this mysterious occurrence, but his guess was no better than the others. All he knew was that he had suddenly felt a wave of dread flooding the entire hall. He didn't know how, but his senses picked up an invisible pressure so thick it was comparable to a brick wall.

Not completely understanding what was happening, Tooru turned around and looked at what he assumed was the cause of this strange phenomenon.

The person he was looking was a boy around his age, whose black hair was all messy, giving him the image of someone who had just woken up. He was looking the other way, so Tooru couldn't discern his face. However, he didn't have any time to pay that any mind.

He was more interested in why _the hell_ did flames suddenly appear on his head.

**-xo-  
**

The boy who caused this had only said one thing:

"...Blaze."

He uttered that simple word. That word was a command which would bring out the form of his soul.

When the boy finally manifested his Blaze, the girl's eyes widened. The reason for that was not because something strange like the manifestation failing or anything like that. In fact, the boy's Blaze _did_ manifest.

However, the form it took was not that of a weapon. Nor was it the shape of a shield or a gun or a brass knuckle or any kind of instrument used in a fight.

His Blaze took the form of a crown.

A black crown with purple linings, it was decorated with red jewels encircling it at even intervals.

At the sight of that peculiar Blaze, the black-haired blue-eyed girl suddenly lost the strength in her legs. She fell to the ground almost as naturally as passing out, but her mind had not been more awake than now. She was conscious enough that she noticed her Blaze disappearing almost instantly.

"W...what?"

She couldn't understand.

Her Blaze...her weapon that took the form of her soul had disappeared.

Normally, a Blaze would only disappear by one's own mental command. As such, there was supposedly no one else that could deactivate her Blaze other than the girl herself.

But her Blaze had by no doubt disappeared without her willing to do so.

"How...? My Blaze..."

"I returned it. Actually, it's more precise to say I made you unconsciously pull it back into your soul, but you get the point."

The boy put his left hand into his pants pocket while scratching the back of his head with his right. "I told you, I don't want to fight you. Fighting against someone who actually has a reason to be here would leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, and I honestly don't want to play the villain. Someone like me, who came here simply because _my circumstances demands so_...well, that alone says a lot about how your motivation is a lot nobler than mine."

"What...do you mean?"

"...Blaze takes the form of one's soul after someone gets injected with Luciful," the boy started to explain with a tired expression. "However, in my case, I never did get the Luciful injection. _My Blaze has existed from the very beginning._"

The girl's eyes widened at the revelation.

"...But...theoretically, that's impossible."

"Maybe. But that is how it is, so I couldn't help it." The boy said while shrugging carelessly. "You can call me a mutant, you can call me an aberrant; whichever is not entirely wrong. All I know is that Luciful has been running through my veins like my blood has for as long as I lived."

The black-haired boy noticed that his female opponent was still troubled by the sudden turnout. Her hand desperately went over to the front of her chest to re-summon her Blaze, but was stopped as her whole body began to tremble.

"For your sake, you should stop trying that." The boy sighed. "It seems you can't understand without me giving you an 'exposition rant about my power' unique to protagonists, so I better give you just that. This really isn't my style, though...sheesh. Well, whatever. You at least know that Blaze takes the form of one's soul and manifests into a weapon complimented by the properties of the soul, right? If so, then explaining this will be easy."

The boy then pointed to the black crown adorning his head.

"The form of my Blaze takes the form of a crown, the symbol of a ruler. At the same time, it's a black crown that symbolizes fear. Strictly speaking, if seen in a symbolic way, this is the type of Blaze which 'rules' over people through the fear in their souls. Pointing your sword towards a king is an act of treason; something that no sane person is fearless enough to do – that's a good metaphor to describe its ability. So long as my Blaze is active, _you won't be able to even think of attacking me_. I suggest you don't use your Blaze, otherwise...well, it'll hurt you more than it'll hurt me, in a psychological way."

"How...there should have been no way such a Blaze even existed!"

"Damn right." The boy said with an ashamed tone, as if saying he wasn't proud of his Blaze. "Honestly, I would've been satisfied with a simple sword or spear, but my Blaze turned out to be an accessory with complicated usage. What do people call this again? Hm...oh, right, it's an 'Irregular'."

The way the boy let that one word roll out from his tongue in such a distasteful manner gave the notion that he was spiting the term 'irregular'. Most likely, he had personal reasons for not liking the word.

The point was, no one in the room – except for a select few who were strangely still standing – was in any condition to continue fighting. This also applied to the naginata-wielding black-haired girl. For better or for worse, the duels had been abstained.

"Right, then. Now that all is said and done..." the boy said to himself casually. He trudged forward towards the black-haired girl.

In response to the boy lessening their distance, the girl's trembling began to gradually worsen. When they were merely a foot away, the girl was already a trembling mess of sweat and tears.

_This person is dangerous._

_He can kill me._

_He can melt me with a stare, mutilate me with a touch, and destroy me with a step._

Those were the thoughts running rampant in her head. She believed in that wholeheartedly.

However, just as the boy arrived in front of her, he walked right past her.

"Sorry," he apologized with a low voice. "The fear you're feeling right now is undoubtedly real, but that is caused by my Blaze. I assure you; none of whatever you're thinking I'd do to you is something I'm inclined to do."

"Y-Y-Yes...un-understood."

The girl was too busy clattering her teeth to deliver a proper sentence.

Seemingly satisfied with her response, the boy continued forward and walked up towards the podium and stopped just in front of it. He looked up and met with the amused gaze of one Tsukumo Sakuya, the Chairman of Kōryō Academy.

The twin-tailed girl wearing a gothic lolita dress was the one who started this duel under the false reasoning of 'qualification ceremony'. Basically, she was the one who instigated the battle he had just stopped.

On his left side stood three people who were probably teachers, though the young woman wearing a bunny suit didn't fit the image at all. They were among those who were unaffected by his Blaze's ability. They had undoubtedly felt it, though, judging by how wary they were when they looked at him.

"...There's a lot I want to point out regarding this stupid excuse of an entrance ceremony, but I'll be brief." The boy's dark blue eyes stared directly into the girl's red ones. "It's a pain, but I request that everyone here to be accepted in Kōryō Academy."

Tsukumo Sakuya raised her eyebrows.

She must've thought the boy was joking, what with his lazed tone that betrayed the importance of his request. She might have mistaken it for a farfetched sarcastic joke had he not looked at her with such an unnerving stare. The girl first inhaled deeply before answering to the boy's request.

"That would defeat the purpose of this qualification ceremony. As I said before, the whole reason the prospective students need to do this is to determine whether or not they deserve to wield their Blaze. Failing here simply proves that they're not fit to do that."

The boy cackled. He sounded like he found the whole thing funny.

"What a joke. You should know better, Chairman-chan. If we're really gonna abide by the rules of this stupid duel, more than half of the students here are going to be sent home. Judging by how you went out of your way to inject Luciful into each and every one of them, with the risk of them getting AIDS thanks to your unsterile syringes, losing that much would be bad news for the school, right?"

"..."

That was true in its own way.

Kōryō Academy might be a prestigious school that not many people could enter, but essentially it was a school directed for students who could draw out the power known as «Blaze». That also meant that, since Exceeds were exceedingly rare, rejecting more than 80 percent of the new entrees would devastatingly decrease their new potentials.

However, Tsukumo Sakuya merely smiled at the fact.

"That's fine. If this many students fail, then it just serves to prove that all of them are unfit to wield Blaze. Personally, I'd like to put more emphasis on the one person who singlehandedly defeated them all without as much as raising a finger, namely you."

"...The heck?"

The boy frowned and glared at the porcelain-like girl.

There was no doubt that everyone in the hall heard her statement, judging by the collective gasps that were heard. The thought of all of them failing simply because they were unable to fight was enough to warrant their disbelief.

"You're saying that it's fine to reject all of them? You're saying that it's fine to cut off the hopes of that many people?"

"For the price of one Irregular with such an intriguing ability? I'd say it's a fair trade. After all, if you alone can defeat this many people, then there's no need to waste time on other people."

She prioritized quality over quantity; someone who could take on hundreds was, in her eyes, better than the hundreds themselves. That kind of thought wasn't wrong, but the black-haired boy couldn't bring himself to accept it.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, but chuckled afterwards.

"I see, I see. Is that a fact? Well, I gotta admit, that train of thought is pretty logical. Still, you're pretty extreme to sacrifice that much just for the sake of little ol' me. I'm not even that special – I'm _just_ an ordinary Irregular. The others are likely more talented in handling their Blaze than I am with my complicated crown. But well, if you refuse to acknowledge that and insist on kicking 'em out, I'll have to do things myself."

As he spoke, the boy raised his hand to the crown on his head.

"**End transmission of passive order, (Code: Tyrant King)! Amendment: Commence mutiny on the king at once. Attack with extreme prejudice and let his blood run on your blade. OBEY!"**

Words rolled out of his tongue as if he was distributing orders to an invisible computer interface. At the same time, the red jewels decorating his black crown shone brightly in a luminescent red glow. The next thing that happened was something unbelievable.

The students who were kneeling on the ground trembling just a moment ago suddenly stood up and had their Blaze appear in their hands. Bewildered looks were exchanged between them as they didn't know how that could happen without them calling out for their Blaze.

What was more troubling, though, was that despite regaining their Blaze, they didn't necessarily regain control of their body. More like, they felt like their limbs were being moved with invisible strings by an invisible puppeteer.

"What is this? I can't move!"

"Wha—hey, I can't control my hand! Look out!"

"Why am I running forward?!"

Things like that could be heard. All of a sudden, a stampede of students were rushing forward towards the crown-wearing boy, swords and spears poised to attack.

The earlier naginata-wielding girl could only stare in befuddlement as her legs carried her forward while her arms pulled back to ram her weapon into the boy's defenseless back.

"Hang on, why aren't you moving? Get away! I can't control my movements!" she tried to call out to the boy, warning him of the impeding danger. But he barely even flinched.

Countless weapons were ready to pierce through him and the crown-wearing boy wasn't budging in the slightest.

'_No...not like this!'_ the girl thought. _'I certainly have something I want to achieve by coming here, but what good would it be if I have to stab someone from the back to do it? This isn't right!'_

"DAMMIT, MOVE IT!"

The girl screamed as her uncontrollable body moved to attack.

And then...

*CLANG*

The sound of metal hitting metal was heard. It then repeated several more times.

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG*

Despite the overwhelming number of weapons trying to pierce the boy's unguarded back, none actually made it there. The reason was simple; something, or someone, had blocked the attacks.

That person held a Blaze in the shape of a shield on his left arm.

"...Heh," chuckled out the crown-wearing boy. "Oi, Irregular #1, who said that you can move?"

"What, I should've just watched as they attack you?" Tooru asked in response, gritting his teeth as he struggled to hold back the weight of more than twenty weapons in front of him.

"Well, that was the whole point why I did what I did. You stepping in right at the final moment not only prevented that outcome, but you also stole my spotlight." The black-haired boy pouted. He looked down to Tooru's arm and calmly said, "But still, a shield, huh? Guess us Irregulars really do get the shittiest items in the shed. That's one sturdy shield, though, I'll give you that."

Tooru didn't respond, but he found himself staring at the mysterious black crown adorning the other boy's head.

"Well, there you go, Chairman-chan." The crown-wearing boy spoke up again. "As you can see, I can control people and make them butcher me without any struggle, excluding this shield guy right here. I have no qualms of being defeated here if that means they get accepted into the academy. So whaddya say? Do you accept my request or should I just do it in a roundabout way and make them win? Either way, no one's here will be left out."

There seemed to be some conflict in Sakuya's eyes as she took in every word the boy said. An annoyed frown marred her graceful features for a second before it returned to how it was initially.

"Interesting... You've caught my interest, boy. Tell me, why do you care for these students to that extent? Surely you don't know any of them, so they are mere strangers to you."

"You're right, they are strangers to me." The boy admitted with a nod. Then, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the twin-tailed girl in contempt. "However, who in their right mind would go along with your stupid qualification or whatever? I sure as hell won't. At least, I'm not cruel enough to force a girl to give up her place here just because I want to win. One of the things I hate the most is people with the inclination to spout conceited bullcrap of how 'the strong wins over the weak'. I get that this is a combat-oriented academy, but what's with that cheesy doctrine, sheesh."

"...I see. Fine then." Sakuya said in a conceding tone. It seemed she had finally made her decision because she raised her hand as a gesture to all of the students. "The duel is over! The victors and losers of this duel are both accepted into the academy. I hereby welcome you all to Kōryō Academy. Finally, I leave you with these words... I pray that someone, someday, might attain [Absolute Duo]."

There was a stunned silence. A loud cheer followed suit when the realization dawned on each and every students.

The black-haired, naginata-wielding girl looked startled by the outcome, and she couldn't wrap her mind around the current situation. She had apparently lost to her opponent, but she got accepted anyway? This was...

"Unbelievable..."

Meanwhile, the crown-wearing boy who created that miracle cackled aloud as if joining in the celebration.

"ALRIGHT! Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"...Did that just really happen?" Tooru asked aloud.

"Aw, come on, Shield-kun. I know that was an unexpected outcome, but the way you're gaping is embarrassing me."

Tooru shrugged, not really caring what the boy thought. He was somewhat relieved, though. This meant that Imari could also enter the academy regardless of whether she was losing or not in their duel. In a way, that was something to be grateful of.

"...Oh, right. Don't call me Shield-kun. My name's Kokonoe Tooru."

"Sure thing, Odin."

"That's the wrong guy!" (*1)

Ignoring Tooru's remark, the boy looked up at Sakuya and smirked.

"So...I suppose there's a catch to our agreement?"

Sakuya smiled, "Indeed. First things first, you are to begin studying in our academy as a student. Later on, though, I'm interested in how that crown will grow out to be. You'll definitely put on a good show."

"Aww, you're making me blush."

Perhaps unable to keep up with the boy's knack for waving off seriousness, Sakuya sighed. "I never had the chance to memorize the new entrees' name. Might I hear yours, crown-boy?"

"Crown-boy, huh? Sounds cheeky...but that's too flaky. I suppose I'll just give you a brief introduction, chuunibyou-style!" The boy bowed humbly with a mock smirk, giving the impression of a magician at the end of his show.

"I'm the one true king who rules, the tyrant who controls people through fear.  
I bear the symbol of terror in my heart and the sin accompanying it.  
I am the infamous Terror King, wielder of the everlasting Guilty Crown."

* * *

**Well, that was my attempt of story-bashing.**

**Not to be rude to any of [Absolute Duo]'s fans, but honestly, this is how I feel about the anime, so I had placed a convenient character to erase the self-important atmosphere of the original story...by creating a self-important OC in a fanfic version of it.**

***Sigh*, dammit, this is getting tedious.**

**Also, I realize this isn't quite a crossover. I actually thought of using [Guilty Crown] as the second party, but judging from Ouma Shu's personality, more than half the things I want the protagonist to do would be impossible for him. So, in the end, I merely took the term "Guilty Crown" and placed it as a Blaze in the story.**

**Thank you for reading this pathetic excuse of a fic, and may it spur your imagination to create something similar.**

Glossary

(1) A wordplay on Tooru's name. As Julie mentioned in the canon story, Tooru's name can be associated to Thor, the Norse Lightning God. Instead of that, the OC called him "Odin"; a different but similar Norse god.


	5. Story 5: The Faux Campione

**Presenting to you a crossover birthed from the bored mind of an everyday Joe!**

**Though I say that, please grant me an apology for one thing. This is yet another [NARUTO] crossover, which I'm certain that you all might've become sick of. No, I'm pretty sure you are, considering that [NARUTO] crossovers are all I ever create. I even lost count on how many times I've owed Kishimoto for borrowing his legacy.**

**But, oh well, if you can't be creative, then you can't help it.**

**In any case, I welcome you to this fifth story. Feel free to read as I think about how cool would a Darth Vader vs Sakata Gintoki death battle be.**

* * *

**Fifth Story:** The Faux Campione

What defines a Campione?

Some say they are supreme rulers of the world. As they alone hold the capacity to kill a celestial being, they thus command their divine power.

Some say they are lords. As beings who hold the ability to kill a deity, they thus dominate the mortals on Earth.

Some say they are demon lords. Amongst the humans inhabiting Earth, none have the power to oppose them.

None of these statements are false. As an existence capable of wielding the power of the heretic gods and deities they had defeated, Campiones are all this and more. Mere mortals who ascended to the level of supreme beings as proof of their capability to kill gods; a Campione is not a normal human.

But there was a reason why the power of the gods was not supposed to fall into human hands. With the exception of the gods from polytheistic religions, the divine beings who wielded enormous power to shape legend and history were nearly exempt of any ill emotions, or any humanly emotions whatsoever that negatively affect them. When weak-willed humans were granted such power, it was natural for them to use it for their personal goals.

Some used it to rule, as Campiones still hold the humanly wanton for power.

Some used it to fight, as Campiones are apparently battle-loving freaks.

Et cetera, et cetera.

Whatever it was, the seven Campiones who held the world in their hands were supposedly an arrogant bunch of douche bags, thinking they could do whatever they wanted.

The boy named Uzumaki Naruto once thought so.

He once had the pleasure of meeting one such bastard. An old, vampiric-looking man garbed in a black trench coat as if he was Count Dracula himself. Confused and utterly flabbergasted by how and why he could suddenly feel the blood running through his veins and the air flowing into his lungs again, Naruto had nearly ignored the old man as he introduced himself as Duke Voban, one of the seven Campiones.

He had absolutely no idea what a 'Campione' was, absentmindedly thinking that it sounded like a brand of ice cream, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

He was alive.

He was _fucking_ alive.

Last time he checked, he had died while tanking an exaggerated Tailed Beast Bomb, courtesy of Uchiha Madara's last ditch effort to kill him. The Jūbi had been near to its end thanks to the combined effort of the Shinobi Alliance, but a severely wounded Madara sacrificed his remaining chakra to directly control the ten-tailed beast, launching the aforementioned chakra bomb to kill him.

He should've been dead. He knew that for a fact.

Unfortunately, in some cruel play of fate, he was suddenly revived and forced to fend for himself when Voban attacked him with the intention to kill. It was around that time too that Naruto realized his chakra was so depleted he could barely feel it in his body anymore. He had been reduced to a normal person with little to no chakra at all.

Thinking back, it was sort of a miracle that he could escape Voban's clutches. He didn't even want to remember about that perverted old man's grinning face when he had suddenly turned into a freaking werewolf!

Needless to say, his impression on Campiones was not better than his impression on a dirty trash can. Not to mention when he found out that the curved-nosed Campione had abducted several girls for the purpose of some ritual. The Naruto of that time was certain that Campiones were no better than Madara, or maybe a horny Jiraiya with messed-up common sense.

To him, Campiones were not lords, rulers, or demon kings.

They were, in his opinion, self-centered overpowered bastards.

**o-x-o-x-o**

4 years had passed since that incident with Voban. In those 4 years, he was forced to adapt to the sudden difference between the world he once lived in and the one he was revived in. He almost impressed himself at how quick he was to adopt this world's ethics, given how different it was to Konoha. His surrounding was filled with technology so sophisticated it would made Sky Country look like a heap of junk. Hell, he didn't know the genius who invented portable phones, but they might be smarter than even Shikamaru.

He was also able to adapt with the fact that ninjas didn't exist in this world. Or at least, not the ones he was familiar with. It seemed the idea of ninja in this world was an extreme type of ANBU who cover their whole body in dark-colored wrappings. Not that he had anything against it. Even if he did, he couldn't argue that those wrapping-covered ninjas were inarguably far stronger than the current chakra-less him.

Indeed, the revived Uzumaki Naruto had changed in that regard. He was upset at first, but since he couldn't help it, he dropped the subject entirely, occupying himself with the goal of leading a peaceful life instead.

However, that wasn't all that had changed about him.

Around the four years he had went through, his opinion about Campione had changed. The reason for this was the seventh Campione, a Japanese teenager who went by the name of Kusanagi Godou.

Initially, Naruto was supposed to be working as an assistant-teacher in the boy's school as an intern. According to his study preference in college, he was to help Mr. Yanagi with his History class. Of course, at that point, Naruto had not thought that anything weird would happen.

That was before the Athena incident happened, in which he had taken a glimpse into the world of occult, and coincidentally, another side of Kusanagi Godou's life.

The battle between Athena (who strangely looked like a normal, short, white-haired high school freshman) and the seventh Campione was something he wasn't prepared to see.

He hadn't actually played a part in the incident. He was one of the people who ran away in fear of the darkening, starless skies. If he were still a shinobi, he would've been his heroic past self and investigate, but the current him was only slightly more than a normal human.

And so, his legs brought him to a shrine up in the hills. Somehow, he thought that it would've been safe there, but it was not. Not only did he run into Marina Yuri, one of his students and apparently the shrine's shrine maiden, but he also stood face to face with the source of the problem at that time.

The goddess, Athena.

Truthfully, Naruto had not much knowledge about Heretic Gods. His focus of study was in history, though he also studied mythology, and he certainly had not heard about gods suddenly taking human form this time around. Had he been revived in the time of Vikings or early Greek, he might be able to accept it, but modern-time Japan? That was a bit hard to swallow.

With that lack of knowledge, he had not thought the suddenly-appearing Athena as dangerous, writing her off as another panicking civilian seeking shelter. Thanks to that, he got his arm torn off and his leg broken when said goddess threw a multitude of vicious owls at him.

He nearly passed out in shock. He thought this kind of thing was only supposed to happen in his world, which sounded more and more fantasy-like as time passed by.

He had no more strength to protect Yuri, and he blamed himself for failing to protect a student. What a great teacher he had been...

It was around that time that Godou arrived; with a showy entrance, no less.

As if he was carried by the wind, Godou had caught Yuri just as she was nearly falling to unconsciousness. Naruto noticed with blurry eyes that the Italian transfer student, Erica Blandelli was following right behind him.

"Don't worry, sensei. I'll finish this, so you go ahead and rest."

After uttering that, the black-haired Campione left Naruto to be cared by Yuri, who used a type of healing magic to heal his leg and reattach his arm. Naruto absentmindedly pointed out in his mind that it looked distinctly like healing jutsu before he passed out.

**o-x-o-x-o**

And then, here he was, somehow getting involved in another strange incident.

Yuri had been kidnapped, it seemed, and Godou was requested to retrieve her. The man who requested this, a bespectacled man named Amakasu, also brought Naruto with the request to join the young teen. He said something about the yellow-haired boy being indebted to Yuri for saving him, and since his memories about the occult side of the world wasn't erased yet the organization the man belonged to needed to keep an eye on him.

Even without the request, Naruto couldn't exactly abandon a student, much less when he found out that the one to kidnap her was Duke Voban.

"You've met him before?" Erica had asked on the way to the Duke's lair.

"He's...an acquaintance," Naruto had vaguely answered.

After that, the trio consisting of Godou, Erica and Naruto was pitted against a platoon of undead soldiers, a golem, an undead magician, and many other undeads that would've creeped anyone out. The only reason Naruto could keep his calm was because he had Edo Tensei S-Class ninjas before, and they were worse than these undead soldiers by a large margin.

When they finally reached Voban's room, it was quite a surprise for the old man. The way he sneered didn't look like it was a bad kind of surprise, though.

"Ah, so my old prey has finally returned? It has been a while, Izanagi."

"Iza—what?" Naruto had said, eyes scrunched up and head tilted.

Surprisingly, the one to continue was not Voban, but Erica. "The great god of Japanese mythology and Shintoism, _Izanagi-no-Ōkami_. The legend is that he was the one who created the many islands of Japan and the gods after him. Duke Voban, is it possible that what you're saying is...?"

"Ha ha ha ha! Yes, the one behind you is the manifestation of Heretic Izanagi, whom I have summoned 4 years ago to hunt. Unfortunately, by the looks of it, it seems he has gotten quite comfortable with a life as a human. It's quite odd, even for me."

The face Godou made should be funny in any other circumstances, considering how his jaw nearly fell off.

"Sensei...all this time, you're a Heretic God?"

"No, no, absolutely not possible. No matter how you see it, I'm really a human being, 'ttebayo! If I were really a god, why would I teach at your school?!"

"Well, there is the slim possibility of a Heretic God going into hiding, but..." Erica suggested weakly.

"Like I said, I'm not a god! And Izanagi, of all things...if I really were him, my siscon traits would've been more apparent!"

It seemed Voban was having none of that, so he stood up and said, "Now that you're here, why don't we have a duel, Izanagi? Your Authority will prove useful while I'm here, considering you're the Great God of this land."

"I'm telling you, I'm not a god! Go find other gods to fuck up, jeez!"

After putting an effort to convince Voban that he wasn't the Great God Izanagi (which failed anyway thanks to the old man's stubbornness), the negotiation for Yuri's release proceeded. Some way or another, the Duke agreed to let her go, but only because Erica deliberately challenged him in Godou's place, weaving a few white lies regarding Godou's inclination for battle.

So Voban had released Yuri to their custody, but with a condition.

That condition involved giving them a thirty minute head-start to run away from him before he came to hunt them down.

**o-x-o-x-o**

In short, a lot of things happened afterwards. After being chased by an army of wolves the size of Akamaru, fighting against undead soldiers (again), and having to escape from the knight Liliana Kranjcar, the party finally went up against Voban himself.

Somewhere along the way, Erica had convinced Liliana to join their group. Though, considering how she brought up what Naruto assumed as an embarrassing novel that the white-haired knight had written, it was apparent that Liliana had no other choice.

His Italian transfer student really was an eloquent imp, he'd give her that.

Unfortunately, as the final fight was of a Campione against another Campione, two knights and a shrine maiden weren't enough of a helping hand.

He had seen it himself; the power that Godou had as a Campione. As the god he had slain was the Persian god of war, Verethragna, the boy commanded said god's Authority, which took the form of the ten avatars Verethragna was said to take from time to time. Each of them was a symbol that would grant its user absolute victory.

But even that wasn't enough.

Some time before, Voban had proven the White Horse avatar to be useless as he literally ate the sun-powered horse whole in his wolf form.

Forced to use his trump card, the Golden Sword avatar which could cut through any divinity, Godou succeeded in cutting through two of Voban's Authorities, rendering them useless.

However, the power-hungry and decidedly more experienced Campione had yet another Authority up his sleeve.

The Marquis of Wind, Master of Rain, and Duke of Thunder – the Three Weather Deities.

With the power of those deities combined, Voban had used the ultimate form of elemental prowess to attack Godou using lightning bolts from the skies. Fortunately, the boy was able to use the Goat avatar, enabling him to control the lightning and deflect the attack.

Still, it was obvious that he was at his limit.

At that time, Naruto thought of why he had stayed behind all this time.

Exactly why had he stayed out of this fight, even when he was clearly involved in it? A normal human like him, who didn't understand much about the occult, didn't really have the responsibility to act, but then why was he here in the first place?

He looked at the people around him.

Three were his students; temporary as it might be, they were still his students. Was he, a teacher, really going to let them fend off for themselves against an opponent clearly out of their league?

Should he really stay put and use 'being a normal human' as an excuse for his passivity?

When the answer to that came across his mind, Naruto groaned to himself.

_Of course he couldn't_.

After all, he wasn't as normal as he liked to think he was.

"_**Of course you're not," **_a voice boomed through his mindscape. _**"It's not normal for someone to host all nine Bijūs, after all."**_

Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox housed inside his body, pointed out. Not that he needed an explanation for that though; he still remembered that the Bijūs, from the one-tailed to the nine-tailed, were all inside him. That was probably the only thing that slightly differ him from normal humans.

'_...Right, time for a vote, guys.'_ The whisker marked man noted in his mind with closed eyes. _'Which one of you is generous enough to sacrifice yourself for me?'_

Several voices resounded in his mindscape.

"_**If you're going against a lightning-type, Shukaku would fit the job."**_

"_**What?! Matatabi, you bitch, are you seriously asking me to die?!"**_

"_**Say what you want, I'm just giving my logical opinion. Also, I'm a cat, so you can't really call me a bitch."**_

Naruto decided to interject before the internal fight could escalate too far; which considering Shukaku's spontaneity, would bring the term 'too far' to a new level.

'_No, well...Shukaku didn't fare well enough against Sasuke's Chidori back then, so I don't think that'd work, even though his wind-type chakra would be a great help.'_

Another voice then chimed in, _**"Hmm...since it's a lightning-type, water and fire-types won't do you any good. Count me and Son out of this one."**_

"_**Isobu, you're just trying to play safe, aren't you? Incidentally, I wouldn't mind going out if it means being able to stretch my legs a bit."**_

"_**Modern society would consider you the new King Kong, so I suggest you don't, Son."**_

More and more voices filled Naruto's head until one voice spoke with enough clarity to overwhelm the torrent of noises.

"_**In the end, brat, the choice is yours. And it doesn't really matter if our element types don't match. As far as I know, some of us will reform and turn into this world's equivalent of what Bijūs are."**_

"_**Penny for your thoughts, Kurama?"**_

"_**For instance...the Eight-Tails of this world is the Yamata-no-Orochi, a colossal eight-tailed eight-headed snake. So Gyūki, if you're chosen to come out, you'd materialize in Yamata-no-Orochi's**__**form rather than an eight-tailed ox. Or, in Saiken's case, it's the Six-Tailed lightning beast Raijū he'll turn into, not a slug. These forms are what this world knows Bijū as, according to the books the brat has read."**_

'_Yeah...I guess turning in accordance to this world's understanding about Bijūs is the way you're supposed to exist or something.'_

A short silence overcame them as the nine tailed beast inside him fell into deep thought. After a while, though, someone spoke up with a confident tone.

"_**I'll go then."**_

'_Saiken...?'_

"_**Like Kurama said, the form I'll take in the outside world is that of a lightning beast, correct? I think that would be the right choice for this battle."**_

Another voice interjected almost exasperatedly, _**"If it's about the element, then I should go. Hey, Kurama, the form I'll take if I go out is a five-tailed dog that can manipulate all the five elements, right?"**_

Kurama nodded knowingly. _**"The Five-Tailed Dog, Hokou. It's true that having all elements to the brat's arsenal is more advantageous. But Kokuō, if I recall, legend told Hokou's elemental prowess to be gained from other elementally more powerful tailed beasts; namely Shukaku of the Wind, Isonade of the Water, Kaku of the Earth, Raijū of the Lightning, and me, who's apparently fire-based. So basically, your elements might be weaker than the ones you gained them from."**_

'_So I guess there's no telling whether Hokou's wind will win against the lightning from the Weather Deities, huh?'_

"_**But..."**_

Saiken's slimy face made it quite hard to discern his facial expressions. However, he seemed to smile as he glanced at his worried brother.

"_**It's fine, Kokuō. I have no qualms of lending my power in this fight. I suppose it's about time I pass on, as well."**_

Despite his reluctance, Kokuō conceded shortly after. Saiken then proceeded to face Naruto in his mindscape.

'_Thanks, Saiken...for letting me do this.'_

"_**It's completely fine. It's high time we leave this world, after all. We were supposed to be dead in our past world. But, if I am going to die, at least let me lend my strength to help you."**_

Naruto smiled good-naturedly at the large, six-tailed slug. _'Utakata must've been proud to have you.'_

"_**Really? Then, in the name of my fallen Jinchūriki, this Saiken will act like the prized Bijū he is!"**_

A minute later, Naruto opened his eyes.

A resolute light filled his deep blue irises that it seemed to be glowing.

"All right, I'm taking it from here."

Naruto stepped forward, placing a hand on the kneeling Godou's shoulder.

"Sensei?"

Naruto gave the younger boy a smirk, "Seeing all this magic shit is cool and all, but I'd be a pretty pathetic teacher to let my students cover my ass all the time. At least let me return the favor this time, 'ttebayo."

"What? You don't have to, really. The opponent is a Campione, you know. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I'm the only one who can fight him."

Despite the truth in the statement, Naruto offered a laugh in return.

"Hah ha ha. Well, that's true. Still, that doesn't change anything. After all, I also have a score to settle with him for suddenly summoning me out of nowhere. I'm supposed to be dead, for God's sake. Can't a dead man get some peace when he deserves it?"

"You...what?"

Naruto chose to ignore the perplexed boy's response as he pushed him back and walked forward ever so steadily.

"Ho ho? So you finally decided to fight me directly, Izanagi?" Voban let his lips form a wide grin. "That's good, truly what I expected from a Heretic God! As I thought, not even you can hide your hunger for battle!"

Hearing the old man's false statement made Naruto's ear itch for some reason. It seemed he was still being mistaken for a Heretic Izanagi.

"*Sigh*...look, I know that you're embarrassed that you summoned the wrong guy, so I can accept your stubbornness in calling me Izanagi to hide it. But really, I'd prefer if you stop calling me that."

"There's no use in hiding it. You may hide your presence by playing a pacifist, but it doesn't change the fact that you're still a god I plan to prey upon."

Voban raised his hand to call out more lightning to attack.

"Now, show me your strength! I'll let you savor your last moments before I rip your Authority out of your very soul!"

Lightning crackled in the cloudy skies. Its purplish hue stroke fear to the mortals walking on the Earth as it was the very form of a god's rage.

Naruto looked up at said god's rage disinterestedly.

"How lame."

"Ah?"

"Y'know, you're a strong guy, I'll give you that. Campione or whatever you are, being able to control lightning, bringing the dead to life, and swallowing a freaking Solar Beam whole is pretty amazing, 'ttebayo. I can see where your arrogance comes from."

As he spoke, Naruto moved his right hand to his stomach. Faint glowing could be seen at the tips of his fingers.

"But if you're already cocky just because you can do all those generic villain shit, then I'll let you in on the bad news." With a deep breath, Naruto moved the hand on his stomach as if he was turning a dial around. "I've seen worse...much worse than this pathetic shōnen manga scenario."

His hand had made a full turn.

Immediately after that, a great surge of energy flowed out of his body. Wind picked up around him as if he was enveloped in a raging hurricane, and sparks flew from his skin in a gradually increasing pace.

"_Now is the time for the closing ceremony! _(O great beast of the roaring thunder)_.  
The people are gathered, the fireplace is lit, and the hounds are set loose! _(Grace our lowly existence with your punishing presence).  
_The only thing missing is a good ol' battle symphony! _(For a sinner stands here, taking what is rightfully yours).  
_Join us, sing for us, for we offer you booze!_ (As such, grant me the strength of lightning and the song of thunder)._"_

As Naruto chanted what sounded to be a verse of an unknown song, carrying a hidden meaning, a yellow bolt of lightning struck him from the heavens, encasing him with bright light.

"Uwaaah?!" Godou was forced to roll away from the sheer force of the lightning strike.

"Sensei! Naruto-sensei!" Yuri exclaimed in fright.

Any normal human would've died from that kind of lightning strike. 1,000 Giga watts to the face would've burned the skin whole and stopped the beating of the heart.

Yet Naruto stood gallantly, along with a huge apparition in the form of a six-tailed beaver-like beast, finishing the last verse of his chant.

"_And now, with all things set, let's begin our hunt. _(Unleash your rage upon this ignorant fool)._"_

A shocked Voban inspected the spectacle in front of him with widened eyes; his 'Weather Deities' Authority suddenly felt insufficient. The celestial lightning on which he had grasped control over with his hands had wavered, as if an unseen and stronger hand had took it from him.

Meanwhile, Erica was doing the same with pretty much the exact expression.

She gulped, "You...this Authority...it's not Izanagi's...?"

Beside her, Liliana looked up with an astounded face. "No...it's not. Isn't this Raijū, which is famous for being the Japanese thunder god Raiden's familiar? Does the Authority he uses belong to Raiden instead of Izanagi?

"Nope," Naruto answered with a smirk. "I told you, I'm not a Campione in the slightest bit. This is more like...drawing power from a symbolic mythological beast by creating a visage of said beast. It's not the whole explanation, but close. You can say this is another form of the Campione you guys are used to. Though, this is more like a fake Campione the more I think about it."

"A fake...?"

"Well, not that it really matters."

Naruto clenched his fist. Lightning crackled at accordance to his every move, giving the impression that his very muscle fibers was made out of lightning. Looking up, he saw the lightning beast Raijū in the form of a chakra shroud not unlike his own complete Bijū mode.

A confident made its way to his face.

"Right then, Voban. I suppose I'll try to make this brief." Naruto raised his arm towards the heavens, calling upon countless lightning bolts with the power of Raijū.

"You're not getting away. Not after you hurt my students, not after you sacrificed innocent lives to summon gods for your own personal desires, and most importantly, not after I sacrificed one of my friends to kill you."

Taken aback by the ferocity in Naruto's words, Duke Voban chuckled nervously. "Ku...kuh hu hu...I see. I suppose I didn't exactly summon a god, but you're enough. You are definitely a worthy prize for a hunt this difficult. No matter if you're a god or a fake Campione; this Voban will take your head along with your power!"

"You're welcome to try, _Campione_. I honestly don't give a fuck." Naruto hissed with a steely voice. His outstretched hand clenched into a fist, and a large lightning split the skies. "Also, don't call me a god or a Campione. I'm nothing close to that, nor will I ever be."

The hand which was clenched as hard as he could then dropped like a hammer of the gods, bringing down a large torrent of lightning.

"The name's Uzumaki Naruto, 'ttebayo."

**o-x-o-x-o**

Uzumaki Naruto is a Jinchūriki.

"Jinchūriki" is a title given to those who become the vessel of great demons known as Bijū.

He is a demon lord.

He holds the nine great demons inside him, and thus commands their destructive power that none can oppose.

He is a hero.

Having contained the demons inside him as the true form of sacrifice, he is the savior of countless lives.

He is a harbinger of death.

As his power comes at the cost of the lives of the demons he calls his 'friends', he will stop at nothing to destroy his opponent.

Such is what Jinchūriki, the Power of Human Sacrifice, is defined by.

* * *

**And that, ladies and gentlemen, was an attempt at a NARUTO – Campione! crossover.**

**AU Over-powered!Naruto with all the nine Bijūs trapped inside him, a false summoning on Voban's part, and little to no character development whatsoever. Yup, this fic is a goner alright.**

**The spell Naruto chanted in the story has its basis taken from [Toaru Majutsu no Index]'s style. Particularly, I tried to copy Tsuchimikado Motoharu's onmyōji spell-casting, but this is really just a lame attempt of it.**

**As you might have realized, mythology and the like is being twisted rather overtly here. My effort in transforming the Bijūs of the NARUTO universe into the Bijūs of the real mythology is, by far, my most ridiculous work. After all, even though Kishimoto's Bijūs **_**are**_** derived from the mythological creatures such as tanuki, kitsune, and nekomata, that doesn't entirely mean that all of them have corresponding counterparts. I'm pretty lucky that Raijū itself is a real mythological creature, apparently.**

**Well, if I offended Shintoism or any religion connected to Japanese mythology, I sincerely apologize. This is a oneshot I have no intention of continuing, so I didn't do much research when I first wrote this.**

**Oh well.**

**Anyways, thank you for stopping by and reading this story. My next work might come a bit later since I want to focus on [Place to Try] and my other fics such as [Unity of Two Worlds], but I'll post another one when I'm bored.**

**A bored me is, apparently, a daring me.**


	6. Story 6: The Unassuming Pseudo-Jedi

**-xo-**

**Sixth Story:** The Unassuming Pseudo-Jedi

It all started with a tragedy.

Every story has it. I can tell. No matter how cliché it is, angst is a pretty good hook factor to get a lot of readers interested. But then again, I can't really say that this story is cliché or anything, though it _is _true that it's tragic and full of angst.

I was standing at the large entrance of the Temple.

The Jedi Temple, residing in the planet Coruscant.

Before anyone can ask what the hell I was doing in this galaxy far, far away, just let me say that it's a long story which would include a long-ass prologue to explain; one that a simple one-shot would fail to tell in full detail.

But anyway, there I was.

Coruscant's night sky really was beautiful. I stared at the brightly-lit horizon and admired its ethereal beauty. It was said that Coruscant at night is a lot more beautiful than it is at noon, and now I see why that's the case.

…

"*Sigh*…this kind of escapism attitude is just like me."

With a forlorn look, I said so depressingly. It wasn't like I didn't want to focus on the matter at hand, but my mind tend to wander off whenever I'm confronted with stressful problems. Unlike in most cases where I can afford being so laidback, it was no time to be daydreaming (though, since it's already night, is it called night-dreaming? Isn't that, like, normal dreams?).

Rumor has it that Anakin Skywalker defected.

Well…defected isn't really the correct word. He _turned_. For some reason, that word holds a lot more malice than it should in normal context.

But those were the last words of Master Windu. _Those were the last words he said to me before he died_.

"_He's turned…Anakin Skywalker has turned…"_

Us Jedi (I can't really say I'm a Jedi, though) know the real meaning of the word 'turned'. We are taught of the ways of the Force as our most basic teachings. And like all things in life, the Force has two sides to its coin.

Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi; a warrior of light.

To say that he has 'turned' meant that he has turned to the dark side; that he became a Sith.

I honestly couldn't believe it at first. It hasn't been long since I first came to the Temple to train, but I know for a fact that Anakin is supposed to be the Chosen One, meant to bring balance to the Force. To say that he has become a Sith Lord contradicts that prophecy completely.

But even if he wasn't the Chosen One, it would still be hard to believe that he'd become a Sith.

I've met him several times. A stubborn, sometimes sardonic guy with a strong sense of justice; he's the type of guy delinquents from all high schools would idolize. In general, he's a good person. With a lightsaber, he's my worst nightmare since being shit on by a wild Bantha.

Still, he's a good guy. So, like I said before, it's hard to believe he turned to the dark side.

-!

Something tugged on my heartstring. Senses honed by countless hours of training in the Force warned me of an upcoming danger.

_He's coming._

The collective sound of rhythmic footsteps reached my ears just as that realization dawned upon me. Not a moment later, the sight of hundreds of clone troopers entered my vision, their rifles held valiantly in front of their armored chests. I should've felt relieved by the fact that those Kaminoan clones appeared, but as they stomped closer and closer in their Mandalorian-style armor, I felt nothing but dread.

This time, they were not my allies.

It was made clear by who was leading them at the time.

"…Anakin."

Swathed in his Jedi robes, Anakin raised his face and stared. Initially, I would have never believed that he had actually turned a Sith. I knew him; a friggin' Sith was never something he wanted to be. Heck, he'd quickly go back to Tatooine and exile himself before that ever happens.

But those eyes spoke of the truth.

The yellow eyes of a Sith shone differently from how I remember his usual eyes used to.

"…Oh? So you're here after all," Anakin uttered, sounding more amused than surprised. His mouth turned into a smirk as he looked at me with narrowed eyes; an expression I've grown accustomed with, honestly. He'd always have that kind of look every time we spar, like a youth enjoying a back alley fight. It just never occurred to me that it would look so Sith-like in this context.

Just then, his smirk dropped a tone as he peered closely towards the entrance of the Jedi Temple behind me. I know he was trying to reach out to the Force and sense the presences of the many Padawan learners in the chambers, and honestly, I wouldn't have any doubts that he could detect them all. But that happened to be what I expected of him.

"I know why you're here, so here's an advice: drop it. You're not going to reach them."

A chuckle escaped Anakin's throat after my revelation. He should have realized it by now, too.

"Oh, I see. You must've caught wind of what happened in the Chancellor's office somehow. Evacuating not only the Padawans, but also the Jedi Masters in such a short notice wouldn't have been possible otherwise."

"What are you talking about? On the off-chance that the Temple is to face an invasion from outer aggressors, the Padawans are to quickly retreat to the escape shuttles while anyone ranked Knights and above fend off said aggressors. …Though, honestly, I hope that even the Masters have already fled by now. You should've expected this kind of outcome. And if you really have trained here, you should've read the rulebook too. Helps you get Master Mundi off your back about it."

"…Those rules were such a pain, though."

"It still is, Anakin." I corrected. "_It still is_."

"Not anymore," He let out another mirthless chuckle. "It's no use. I've turned my back on the Jedi path. The dark side is where I stand now."

He said those things with such a logical ease that I lost my words.

Anakin raised a hand, signaling to a clone commander to prepare their weapons. Their rifles cocked and ready, the clone troopers took aim almost systematically.

I'm not confident enough to say that I could stand up to a whole battalion of clone troopers, nor do I think I would ever be able to. They were different than the training bots used in blocking training; hardened soldiers armed to the teeth with the will to follow orders until death or glory. And they use real bullets. My single lightsaber felt seriously insufficient all of a sudden. Not to mention that I lack talent in Form III _Soresu_ lightsaber style to even _think_ of escaping a gunfight unscathed.

Should've asked Master Obi-Wan to train me some.

"Look at yourself, Zeke. You're standing here, alone, endangering yourself even when you could've fled along with the others, and for what? So you can buy some time for them? So you can protect them? You're willing to stand and protect even Jedi Masters who are evidently stronger and more capable than you are? Why are you even going that far? If only you knew about how corrupt the Jedi have been, you wouldn't be so dead-set on protecting them."

"I'll be the judge of my own opinions, thank you very much," I felt my knuckles pop as I clenched my fists. "It's true that the Jedi might have done some wrong things. I won't say that each and every decision they've made up until now are entirely correct, either. And their creed of theirs contradicts what there is in life, as well. Giving up compassion for peace? In all honesty, if there's no difference between the two, I'd rather go Sith rather than leading such a strict life as a Jedi.

"But my life is here now. The things that make up my world today are on this side of the Force, and I want to protect them. I don't care about the Jedi or Sith! I honestly don't give a shit if you want to turn into a Sith and rampage across the galaxy! But if you're going to destroy _my _world, if you're going to hurt those around me, then you better clench your teeth. There's no way I'm letting that happen!"

I had no intent on sounding pretentious.

In fact, I didn't want to let myself think I was such a great existence. Up until several months ago, I was just a simple university student, all but ignorant of my father and mother being former Jedi Masters. I'm not a big player in the wider board this conflict was brewing upon.

But I do know one thing.

I have my own things to protect. And _goddammit_, I'll be damned if I let this guy destroy them!

"…Huh. So be it, then." Anakin said whilst drawing out a tube-shaped object; his lightsaber.

_VMMMM!_

A light blue-colored beam hummed to life.

"How'd you say it? 'The things that make up my world are in this side of the Force'? How ironic. I'm standing on _this_ side of the Force simply because what makes up your world is destroying mine. Sounds like a clash of selfish ideals, doesn't it?"

Anakin had a point.

Seen from that perspective, what he was doing made slight sense as well. Even though he had turned evil, he wouldn't be some easy demon king that I can fight without hesitation.

Undoubtedly, he was fighting for his own world; his own sense of justice, as well. Going against someone like that had the difficulty of fighting against another hero in a PvP contest. In other words, defeating him would likely be harder than anything, given our similar standing.

'_But that changes nothing.'_

What we needed to do was underwhelming in its simplicity.

We have our own worlds to protect. We just have to protect it the best we can, _and see which one survives afterwards_.

"It's no use! You're merely preventing the inevitable. There's no stopping what my master has willed to happen. The Jedi will perish. And I am going to see to it myself. I'll kill every living Jedi with my own two hands, even if I have to burn every star system down to find them!"

Even though the clone troopers around him was enough to overwhelm and defeat me with their assault rifles, Anakin raised his own hand with his palm facing me. Already I could feel the darkness lurking in-between the Force gathering around his hand; a tell-tale sign of him calling forth a Sith Lightning.

Despite all that, I could feel myself grinning.

My talent was not in the ways of the lightsaber. I've barely gotten around using Form II, but even then that was the only form I know that fits my average stamina. I'm not Master Cin-Drallig who specialized in high speed movements or his disciple Sera whose dual-wielding was the scariest form I've ever seen, and I'm not like Ahsoka, Anakin's very own Padawan apprentice, who was a monster with her Form IV.

But that doesn't mean I was powerless.

If I said so, well…_that personification of the Force_ might come and kick me in the ass again.

Thus, I reached out to the source of energy encompassing all life around me.

_I reached out to the Force which my talent solely resided in_, taking it and molding it with the most powerful tool ever known to sentient, intelligent beings; imagination.

Closing my eyes, I pictured what I wanted to do with the Force at hand.

"**Of the dead, I shall sing,  
A poem of their glorious upbringing.  
To the living, I shall recite,  
A tale that shakes the heavenly night.  
The weak, the strong,  
The fallen, and the victorious.  
Lend thy blades and fight with me."**

The easiest, most efficient way to strengthen one's visualization of their mind was either through drawing a picture of it or going through a series of audio-visual stimulus related to their thoughts. In my case, a quick recital of a chant, of an _aria_, which brought to my mind _a scene_ _of that one ability in an anime I have watched_, was the one thing that stimulated my imagination the way I wanted it.

Yes.

I doubted the Jedi, the Sith, or anyone in this star system for that matter, knew anything about otaku culture. That happened to work in my favor. Let's see how well they handle this 'bone of my sword'.

"**So hear my prayer…Infinite Sword Call."**

I can feel them.

Hanging in the air behind me, blanketed by the shadows, concealing themselves from the naked eye. All at once, they ignited, chasing away the darkness with their bright colors respective to the crystals empowering them.

Lightsabers.

I couldn't count them all even if I wanted to. The number was too great it almost felt like they were part of Coruscant's dazzling night light.

"You don't really think I came without preparation, do you?" I asked aloud. "Even _I'm_ not that stupid. Heck no, against you, there's no way I'm going half-heartedly. Someone like you wouldn't stay down unless something like an overcharged Grandrey Cero exploded in your face, after all."

The countless rows of lightsabers behind me wasn't merely a weapon. Each and every one of them symbolizes the faith that the other Jedis have placed on me. For one Jedi that escaped, one lightsaber was entrusted to me. For every sword hanging behind me, a promise to protect them was made.

Metaphorically, perhaps, I was carrying the weight of the world I want to protect on my back. Sounds like Atlas of Greek mythology, huh? But if I remember correctly, wasn't he carrying the Heavens originally? …Meh, so much for a good metaphor.

"Let me say this again, Anakin. I've got a _**world**_ to protect. So if you really think that you can defeat me, then prepare yourself. I'll show you just how fragile those claws and fangs that you're pointing at my world really are!"

Somewhere deep down, I know I might not be able to win.

Infinite swords or not, my opponent was still the strongest Jedi the world has ever seen. Him becoming a Sith didn't change that. In fact, since he had something he want to protect so badly that he'd turn to the dark side, it was safe to say he had gotten even stronger. But all of that didn't matter.

I might not win.

_But I'll be sure to give this Chosen One a satisfying right hook to the face and teach him a lesson._

* * *

**Yeeaaah…sorry 'bout that.**

**You guys should know that I got a LOT of beef with how the Star Wars went in the third episode. This especially grinds my gears because a lot of my favorite characters got killed there. There's Mace Windu, the young Padawans (apparently no one in the Sith taught about how wrong child homicide is), and Anakin Skywalker. Because, yeah, Anakin is dead the moment he turned into Darth Vader (unless his redemption in episode 6 means anything at all).**

**So, yeah, insert convenient OC right there :P**

**It's like I wasn't satisfied with replacing Obi-Wan with Kamijou Touma for the battle in Mustafar on Chapter 1, but now an anime-savvy OC with a strong 'connection' with the Force (yeah, that quotation mark is intentional) arrives on stage. Seriously.**

**To those who noticed, yeah, I tried to bastardize Archer/Counter Guardian EMIYA's Unlimited Blade Works here. But hey, can you really blame me? The dude rocks. Heck, the Fate series, Kinoko Nasu, and Ufotable, all of them rocks.**

**P.S: Later on, this teaser oneshot might actually become an official one, depends on when I finish my other fics. Until then, feel free to adopt! Actually, no, even if it becomes official, you're still welcome to adopt!**

…**Oi, doesn't this make me look like I'm gonna be a bad parent?**


	7. Story 7: Perfect Recall

**FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!**

**Sorry, I, uh, needed to let that out.**

**Can this still be included in T-rating? Cursing out of the blue like that can still be accepted by the rating, right? I don't have to censor it, right?!**

**Ahem.**

**Well, putting that aside. Something came up while I was writing my other stories. Not exactly a plot bunny, because really, this is an idea that has been on my mind for quite some time. Probably a plot weasel? Weasels tend to hole up in homes and pop up in your attic at some point, don't they? Or does that makes it a plot **_**cockroach**_**?**

**Anyway…**

**As some of you probably know, I've started a Naruto – Toaru Majutsu no Index crossover a while back. Now, I haven't made any plans on updating it, because chronologically, I would have to finish 'Place to Try' first since that Naruto – Toaru crossover **_**is**_** going to be included in the New Chapter project.**

**...But really, that part of my brain that I reserved for that crossover is getting itchy. I kinda wanted to write down a part of the story here just to satisfy my inner muse. I hope you don't mind.**

**And, SPOILER ALERT: That same crossover is determined to be the continuation of 'Place to Try', though [Angel Beats!] will no longer be the main focus, obviously.**

**Naturally, Naruto is going to be present. In fact, as some of you probably know, it's been settled that Naruto will appear as an esper in the story. Overused character notwithstanding, the plot I have in mind feels to already be set in liquid concrete (I say this because future changes may occur, but not big ones).**

**And now for the important part:**

**This story will be a sort of teaser (I guess?) for the upcoming crossover. The scene portrayed here will be **_**reeeaaally**_** far in the future (like, needing-to-appear-as-a-sequel far), but I guarantee you this scene will be written. For those of you who had not read the New Testament part of the Toaru light novel, then this might contain some spoilers. If you enjoy being spoiled, then by all means.**

**Well then, with that out of the way…**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Seventh Story:** An Act of Heresy Against the Most Powerful  
_Perfect_Recall_

The world was destroyed.

It was perfectly and completely annihilated without leaving a single speck of dust behind. No, it was possible that even the atoms needed to construct that single speck of dust were no longer in existence. In its stead, a blank realm of eternal darkness expanded endlessly with no horizon in sight. If one were to try and stand here, they would definitely lose their sense of balance immediately.

Magic God Othinus.

That was the name of the culprit behind the world's destruction.

Kamijou Touma.

That was the name of the boy who survived that same destruction.

And…

Uzumaki Naruto.

He survived by accident.

In the beginning, the assault on Sargasso, GREMLIN's base of operation, was done by a group of six. Leivinia Birdway of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight, Lessar of England's magic cabal the New Light, Index Librorum Prohibitorum, Misaka Mikoto, Kamijou Touma, and lastly, Uzumaki Naruto. They had attacked with the assumption that they could stop the creation of Gungnir – Othinus's lance which would enable her to ascend to the level of Magic God. As it turned out, things didn't go as planned.

When they arrived, said lance was already in her hands.

And then, she had proceeded to destroy the world with it.

Of course, several things might have happened seconds before the blonde Magic God actually did it. Birdway might have been preparing to use one of her spells, Mikoto might have taken out an arcade coin with the intention of shooting her railgun, and Kamijou might have been in the process of sprinting towards Othinus with his right hand tightly clenched. In Naruto's case, he might have taken out a kunai from a holster strapped to his thigh – a kunai which emitted an AIM field identical to that of a certain Level 4 Teleporter – with his left hand before throwing it towards Othinus. The AIM Analyzer ability stored within his left hand had read the Level 4 Teleporter's AIM field, enabling him to use an adapted copy of it, and jump into the theoretical 11th dimension – a basic action of teleportation.

Then again, there was no telling whether all of that really happened.

An _action_ was scientifically referred to as such when the surrounding objects give out some semblance of a _reaction_ in response.

_When the world as a whole was destroyed before it can even give so much of that deciding factor_, there was nothing that could prove whether all of those actions ever took place.

That's right.

What we can rely on was the testament of one of the two boys who survived the destruction of the world, Uzumaki Naruto.

As a human being, his mind couldn't catch up quickly enough to register that the world was destroyed, so his standing might be as that of an 'unreliable narrator', but let's go with what he had at the moment.

At any rate, he was completely certain that he had definitely thrown a kunai towards Magic God Othinus.

What was _**supposed**_ to happen next was him appearing where his kunai – acting as a beacon or point of reference connecting him to the real world – had flown, which was _**supposed**_ to be in front of Othinus. But the conclusion of his action had veered off from what he had expected.

Moreover, despite Naruto having "jumped" from where he had been standing before, he didn't return to that world.

_He was stuck in the theoretical 11__th__ dimension used in the calculation of teleportation_.

At least, that was the only viable explanation he could come up with. Technically, the 11th dimension was nothing more than a model used by Teleporters to calculate their spatial movement. A part of the string theory, it was supposed to be a dimension unobservable by human beings who existed in the third dimension consisting of length, width and height, plus the fourth dimension of time.

Now, as far as he knew, nothing in science had been able to confirm whether or not the 11th dimension physically existed, so he really had no idea what it actually was despite having used it countless times using his adapted Teleporter ability.

But he certainly didn't expect it to be a space filled with jewelry.

No, calling them jewelry might not be entirely correct. There were translucent crystal orbs weightlessly hovering around him in the blank, empty space. They might have numbered around the thousands, but he somehow felt like he would sooner lose his mind than finish counting all of those crystal orbs.

Just as he was starting to lose himself to the beauty of those crystal orbs, a girl appeared.

She was a blue-haired, purple-eyed girl who wore a light green, one-piece sundress.

For some reason, her face looked sad. It was the exemplary look of a child whose favorite plush toy had recently worn out and had to part with. He didn't know why that was the impression he got from the girl, though. That was pretty rude, considering she was a stranger.

That's right.

He didn't know her.

_But she knew him_.

"**Uzumaki Naruto."**

She spoke of his name, calling out to him.

Then, all of a sudden, pain exploded in his head. A stabbing, burning pain, wrenching away his control over his own thoughts. His brain honestly felt like it would melt and evaporate, and he would have no power to prevent it. But the pain was only there for a single moment. What followed along was a deluge of images invading his sight and knowledge; things that shocked him to his core.

Memories. Knowledge. A buried past, long forgotten. A world, long gone.

All of it came back to him as he naturally accepted all of it, much to his surprise.

That was right.

_He had died once already._

_He had also met this girl before._

_He had visited the realm known as the Afterlife and met its inhabitants._

_He was reincarnated_.

He remembered it all.

The girl, who he then recognized as Frederica Bernkastel, the Saint of Time and Space, the Overseer responsible for governing all the memories of the entire universe – nay, the entire _**existence**_ – since time immemorial, apologized to him for his current outcome. She confessed that she did not expect Othinus to destroy the entire world as they knew it; something that a being called a Magic God was fully capable of doing.

To make matters worse, the Magic God had proceeded to create a new world on which she had added an extra layer of reality on top of. The term Frederica used was "phase", though Naruto doubted he knew what that exactly was.

Apparently, the Saint's realm was unreachable even by that overpowered blonde Norse god, so there had been no changes in Frederica's realm. It also meant that this was probably the one safe haven that Othinus could never reach even with her newfound power.

Even so, Frederica had added, Othinus's actions could not be allowed to continue.

Constant destruction and recreation of the [_A Certain Magical Index_] world's reality would in effect rewrite the memories coming from that world over and over again. It was essentially the same as writing something on a paper, applying a correction pen on it, rewriting it, and repeating the process. If it keeps happening, it was possible that any record of that world would become too murky and distorted, in the end leading to the world not having any memories to keep record of. And such a world, in Frederica's words, would have no reason to exist.

When asked why Othinus was constantly shifting reality in the first place, Frederica's answer was that she didn't know either.

However, she did know that the Magic God was forcing a single boy through all of those phases and watching as he was slowly tortured in every way impossible.

Naruto begged to the Saint to send him to those phases; those distorted worlds Othinus had created. The need to stop Othinus had never been more stressed than now as the knowledge of that spiky-haired boy having to go through multiple hells became apparent to him.

At first, Frederica had hesitated. She was unsure if there was really anything he could do to stop the madness. Then, at last, she figured that if anyone had any chance of reverting things back to normal, it was the current Naruto who had regained his memories. The Imagine Breaker boy was still held captive by Magic God Othinus, so someone else had to do the job.

**o-x-o-x-o**

It was a nightmare.

The world had shifted so much just by slightly altering the perspective of the whole mankind. Academy City was in ruins, riots were taking over, but more importantly, the friends he thought he knew blamed one person and one person only for this whole mess, proceeding to hunt that person down with extreme prejudice.

'That person' was not Othinus.

_It was Kamijou Touma_.

This was a world where Kamijou Touma was the main villain everyone had to eliminate.

No matter who they were, whether they were allies he had gained through many hardships or friends he had spent time with throughout his school life with, they all turned against him with fists clenched and weapons in hand. Their perspective, forcefully changed by Othinus, had clouded even the memories they had of the boy.

It was broken.

And it was incomprehensibly cruel.

Amidst it all, Naruto couldn't find said boy. Despite all the hatred supposedly directed to him, Kamijou was not anywhere that he could see. What he found instead was a pissed off Misaka Mikoto with a dead Shirai Kuroko in her hands, a sight that he was certain would haunt him in his sleep for years to come. And it got worse.

The #3 Level 5 was out for blood. And it was Kamijou's, much to the whisker-marked blond's ultimate disbelief.

Then Judgment, Anti-Skill, and even some parts of Academy City's darkness rolled in, bringing about even more chaos. There was even _a talking dog with the equivalent of a Gundam suit weaponry strapped to its back_.

It took a full-powered Tailed Beast Bomb coupled with eight Planetary _Rasenshuriken_ to ward them all off, decimating most of them and rendering the rest immobile with powers beyond this world's comprehension. He showed no mercy; he had to, or else Kamijou would really be swallowed by this distorted world's cruelty.

Before he could find him, though, the world was once again reset. Othinus had added yet another layer to the world and changed reality.

This time it was a world which denied Kamijou Touma's existence.

It was slightly different than how he worded it in his thoughts. 'Kamijou Touma' _did_ exist. The fact that someone was there in the classroom wearing a school uniform, surrounded by his friends and their laughter was unavoidable.

But at the same time, the 'Kamijou Touma' sitting in that chair wasn't the Kamijou Touma he knew. It was an entirely different person.

At that moment, Naruto understood.

It wasn't that Kamijou Touma's 'existence' was denied. It was that the 'role' of 'Kamijou Touma' here, in this world, was turned into something that anybody can fill in, and it didn't even have to be the Kamijou Touma he knew as his childhood friend.

It was a thoroughly frightening reality.

And he rejected it; not because he couldn't accept it, but because he knew the real truth. 'Kamijou Touma' wasn't a _role_, not a costume that anyone can wear or a name that just anyone can bear. No matter what reality dictates, as long as he knew the truth, he would reject it continuously.

But it was not meant to be that way.

Frederica pulled him out of the phase he was in, explaining that he could never defeat Othinus if he doesn't understand that what he saw was reality as it was. No matter what kind of truth Naruto held in his mind, whatever memory he had of the previous world, it would not be considered valid in a reality written by Othinus the Magic God.

That was what made this such a huge problem.

Sooner or later, the validity of the memories stored inside Naruto's mind, and of course Kamijou's, would be too warped to be considered a memory. The further the world changes from how they knew it to be, the further their memories become something invalid.

And if Naruto didn't acknowledge that reality was changing by the second, he would never understand the scope of Othinus's power, and he would never be able to defeat her.

"...But if I do that, I'd be accepting that she holds the world in her hand. I'd be accepting her as a god," he said with contempt. "That's the same as admitting I can't win against her."

"At this point, I can consider her nothing less." Frederica nodded affirmatively.

"...Then help me," he pleaded. "A friend of mine is being tortured by realities he shouldn't be in, all because of an arrogant girl who thinks she can destroy the world, a world I live in. So help me kick her ass and set things right."

He needed a weapon.

No, more than that, he needed the power to slay a being powerful enough to alter reality.

Frederica gave him a grim look.

"...A Fragment of Time," she muttered. "The only thing that can help us is...oh Lord, please forgive us."

**o-x-o-x-o**

...Moments passed.

He had seen what kind of phase Othinus had used now.

Fire blazed behind his eyes. An anger contained so carefully as to keep it from bursting was seeping its way out from his eyes, currently glaring holes at a feminine figure sitting casually at the top of a school building.

"Well, isn't this nice? Sure am glad I don't need to waste my energy doing a mass search for you, y'know."

"...I had thought something felt off. So another one was here, after all."

"So you knew? That's good. Spares me from having to explain it all, then. _**Now come down here so I can rip you a new one**_."

"That's quite a brave statement, human. Empty, but brave. It's only suiting for someone who is ignorant of the full extent of a god's power, but you know better than that. _I've subjugated the Imagine Breaker to a hell not even he could stand up to_. What makes you think you stand a better chance?"

"You know how many fucks I've given to malevolent gods in my past life? _None_. And you're no god. You're just a whiny little girl who throws a tantrum when your favorite toy doesn't bend the way you want, when it doesn't change color no matter how much paint you use on it. You destroyed the world, reshaped it to your heart's content, and for what? So you can torture a single human being? So you can see how far he will bend before he breaks? Is that why you created this disgusting world where all of his past actions are rendered meaningless? Is that why you crushed him with the weight of those smiles he was trying to protect all this time? Because _**congratu-fucking-lations, you piece of shit, you've gone and done it now.**_ Daddy's home, and you deserve a hell lot of spanking."

***BOOOOOOM!***

**o-x-o-x-o**

...

He had expected this.

A Magic God was a being so powerful they could overwrite reality. Direct confrontation was not something that he could rely on against someone of that level. He was even outmatched physically, despite Othinus's limbs being thin enough that he could break it like a twig.

Unfortunately, her appearance was a devious one.

With a single punch – he was not sure if it could even be called that when all she did was to stretch out her arm as she appear in front of him – Othinus was able to blow him back dozens of meters away, into and through concrete walls. The only reason he was still alive was because he was using his _Bijū_ Mode and moved to dodge at a speed comparable to that of a bullet. As such, it wasn't even a direct hit; she had merely clipped him by the inches of his shoulder.

Even so, despite it not being a direct hit, his right shoulder was crushed, and his ribs collapsed and punctured his right lung.

Yes.

There was no logical way to best a being powerful enough to end a world in combat.

_But this was all he got_. Fighting a god directly like an idiot was the only way he knew how he should stop said god's rampage.

_That's why..._

_No matter what it takes..._

_**He. Will. Break. Her. Face. In.**_

'_Let's take it up a notch, shall we?'_

The sound of glass breaking resounded throughout the world.

_Recall:/Fate-stay_night/source=Saber-Arturia_Pendragon_.

**o-x-o-x-o**

Through the noise of falling rubbles, Othinus's ears picked up a unique sound.

The crumbling building she had just blasted the yellow-haired boy into undoubtedly had windows placed here and there. As such, it shouldn't be surprising to hear the sound of them breaking. Yet, that one sound had resounded so clearly that it almost sounded like it vibrated on its own unique frequency.

Before she could think further on that weird phenomenon, she heard something else.

This time, it was louder, more audible, and considerably angrier.

"**Ex-"**

The dust cloud forming around the falling rubbles shone brightly for a second before something fast broke through it.

At first, Othinus couldn't quite see what 'it' was, only that it was leaving a streak of golden light. When her eyes adjusted, however, she could finally see what the source of that golden light was.

A certain angry blond, holding a sword thrumming with golden energy, swinging said sword in a heavy downward slash.

"**-CALIBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRR!"**

A huge blast of magical energy, far outmatching any that a normal magician could produce, filled the sky with a radiant shine. The attack, which could only be described as a humongous beam of golden light, destroyed everything unfortunate enough to be in its path. The other half of the school building was eradicated, leaving only a few broken rubble behind.

Yet Magic God Othinus remained.

Despite the enormity of the blast, she alone remained, proving once again just what a monster a Magic God truly was.

However...

"..."

Othinus looked down.

Both of her arms were outstretched, holding Gungnir in front of her to block. The fact that her survival instinct had reacted to the attack and drove her to put up her defense was something amazing by itself, but her eyes were focused on her arms instead.

They were trembling.

To top it off, a bit of her skin was blackened, possibly singed by the intensity of the blast just now.

_In other words, she had just taken damage_. It was miniscule, but the whisker-marked boy's attack had successfully damaged her.

Her single eye then moved up looking towards her opponent.

He was still coated in the yellow chakra shroud which flickered like flames just as before, but there were differences. In his right hand was a golden sword which symbolized victory. Hanging by his left hip was its ornate sheath that carried the name of a certain utopia. Both were once held by a certain king who failed her people and had once selfishly wished for a chance to undo her past mistakes.

Her people had known her as Arturia Pendragon.

Her Master had known her as Saber.

"That's…"

Othinus did not recognize it.

She recognized the name that her blond opponent had yelled out as the name of the sword that King Arthur from the legends was said to wield, but she didn't remember it being in that form. In other words, it was a different Excalibur from the one she had knowledge of.

Othinus had no way of knowing it, but her confusion was justified. _The Excalibur that Naruto held in his hands was from a different universe entirely_.

Then, what exactly happened?

Let's think about this for a second:

The Uzumaki Naruto of this universe was a reincarnated human who had a special left hand, which had a special power known as AIM Analyzer that could read an esper's AIM diffusion field when it makes contact.

However, _what if that isn't really all there is to it?_

And then, we have the Fragments of Time; crystallizations of memories from different universes which the Overseer, 'Saint of Time and Space' Frederica Bernkastel used to govern the flow of memories. Each of them contained memories of a world, which by function would serve to compile knowledge for other parallel worlds as a means to 'correct' its path to avoid what could be called in story terms as 'bad endings'.

Now, suppose the aforementioned left hand could read the memories stored within those Fragments. Suppose that left hand had the ability to _perfectly imitate the abilities of an individual from the worlds those Fragments originated from_.

That left hand was no longer a simple left hand.

_It was now a tool that infringes the copyright of multiple universes_.

"I told you, didn't I? This isn't about taking back my world. This isn't about deciding which one is made of lies or accepting the other as the true reality. This isn't about justice. _**This is me kicking your divine posterior, and believe me, I'm gonna kick it so fucking hard you'll WISH I had jammed Gungnir up your rectum instead. DOES THAT SOUND APPEALING TO YOU, YOU HORNY LITTLE BITCH?!**_"

Equipped with such an unfair tool, Uzumaki Naruto faced forward and snarled.

Yes.

He had to be at least this shameless if he were to face a being that could rewrite reality.

At least, in his honest opinion, it wasn't entirely his fault. To quote from his irrational train of thought, _'The bitch started it first when she turned so OP.'_

"Gear up, _**Magic God**_. I won't be satisfied until I crush you in your strongest form."

* * *

**...I'm sorry.**

**Truly, I apologize. I was so fired up when I started this one, but then the ending fell short with what I can only say as a poor, hurried narration that takes away the seriousness I wanted the scene to have initially.**

**Then again, this is a **_**very**_** rough draft. I hope you realize that, as well. After all, there are many inconsistencies here and there.**

**For starters, I am trying to introduce a concept (that I probably should have done from the very beginning, i.e. the bridge fic that started this series) of Frederica Bernkastel being an existence known as an 'Overseer'. In the beginning, I used the term 'Saint of Time and Space' because at the time I couldn't find a term nearly as powerful and all-encompassing as that. Now I see that the name simply drips eighth-grade syndrome delusion and over-the-top self-importance.**

**I suppose it's already too late, so I'm reintroducing Frederica as an Overseer with a title of 'Saint of Time and Space', thereby erasing the importance of the term Saint on her (I realize that 'Saint' will be a somewhat confusing term considering the Toaruverse has the 'less than 20 Saints' version).**

**Next is the AIM Analyzer.**

**AIM Analyzer is an ability that, quite frankly, I've created because I was lazy. I'm not as imaginative as other authors who can make up cool, practical esper abilities for their version of Naruto/OC, and I'm not deeply entrenched in the in-universe esper science enough to simply give Naruto a Level 3 Pyrokinesis and keep him classy with just that. In a way, AIM Analyzer is the product of me having only staccato knowledge of the abilities in the Toaruverse, thus letting myself borrow them (read: steal) from under Kamachi's nose.**

**Here, I've even given it the ridiculous power up of being able to read memories directly from a Fragment of Time (taken from the Higurashi universe, copyright of Ryukishi07). Yes, I know, this is a ridiculous idea. I can already feel some critics coming in the future to correct this overpowered hand-wave. But trust me, I will try my best that what comes in the real storyline will make sense to you readers.**

**Lastly, but not least, is the usage of Excalibur.**

**Yes, Nasuverse fans, my diabolical hands have reached into your territory. The sad thing is I'm not sure I'm doing you guys and the Nasuverse any justice. And I know well enough that Saber/Arturia Pendragon does not materialize Avalon anywhere in the series. As far as I know about the Fate route, Shirou simply returned it to her and it was stored within her...probably as a conceptual weapon? Anyway, as far as I know, Avalon is not materialized in its physical form in the Fate series' storyline (except Zero, I think). Correct me if I'm wrong.**

**Then again, I only need Avalon for its healing mechanism, so I probably shouldn't describe its appearance at all...? Oh, I dunno.**

**You know, I actually prefer the idea of having the AIM Analyzer scan the memory of Shirou from the Heaven's Feel route. Naruto having Archer's left arm is admittedly a cool idea. It coincides with my desire to have Excalibur show up as well, since Heaven's Feel Shirou can probably trace Excalibur Image. But then, the Type-Moon wiki says that Excalibur Image can only be used inside Unlimited Blade Works, so that takes away the possibility of having that golden sword show up.**

**Damn it, and I really wanted to try writing super ridiculous like:**

"**Trigger, off."**

"**Set...Excalibur Blade Works."**

***Sigh*.**

**In any case, I'm simply overloading with ideas since I just turned AIM Analyzer into a copyright infringement machine. Gintoki would've been proud. Therefore, sorry for the long rant.**

**Well, basically, I just hope you'll continue to wait for the Naruto-Toaru crossover to come out. It's probably wrong for me to do so, but I hope you're just excited as I am for it.**

**...Though I'm pretty sure this idea bag doesn't get visited that often, so should I really write this here?**

**P.S: This story isn't really up for adoption, since I _am _planning to write it in the future. Sorry 'bout that.**


End file.
